The decision to replace Wes Lee with Dragon Lee for the NXT North American Championship match at Saturday’s NXT Deadline 2023 premium live event was made at the last possible moment.
During today’s NXT Deadline 2023 media call, Shawn Michaels shed some light on the events that led up to the big announcement that was made this past Tuesday night on WWE NXT on the USA Network.
“Well, the decision with Wes was pretty darn close to last minute,” Michaels revealed. “Wes has been struggling for quite some time, I certainly didn’t know the depth of it. Obviously, we get medical reports, but it was a decision that Wes made on his own, as he should. Clearly, he’s a young man that goes out there and performs like few others and he had a huge match already going into this premium live event looking for the North American Championship, but just a day or two before, we had a long talk and he just did not think he could make it through the match with the pain that he was in.”
Michaels continued, “That was a decision that he and our medical team made, it is the best decision for Wes and that is the only thing in my mind that’s important right now. All of this was last minute, Wes, to his credit, was doing everything he could do to get himself ready for this, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
The Head of Creative for WWE NXT would go on to elaborate on the decision to pick Dragon Lee, with Rey Mysterio in his corner, as the new opponent for Dominik Mysterio in the NXT North American Championship bout at Saturday’s NXT Deadline 2023 premium live event.
“So, we made the last-minute decision I guess less than 24 hours with Dragon Lee,” he said. “I’ll say this, there’s obviously story there from before with Dragon Lee. From a selfish standpoint, for me, I was so looking forward and enjoying having him in NXT, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I didn’t have him as long as I wanted to.”
HBK added, “He’s something that, again, I felt like would be a fantastic match. He’s somebody that I happen to personally enjoy and like, not just as a performer, but as a human being. I know there were matchups that were still on the table for me in NXT, so I thought that if there was any possibility of those matches being able to happen, that Dragon Lee would be the best fit. It’s great to have him in NXT, even if it’s for just a little bit longer.”
Make sure to join us here at PWMania.com on Saturday night for live NXT Deadline 2023 results coverage from the Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
