Bronson Reed reacts to winning WWE NXT North American title, talks the Australian influence

Bronson Reed’s 14-year wrestling journey reached new heights with his huge NXT North American Championship victory inside of a steel cage on the May 18 edition of WWE NXT. Now, he aims to take on all comers to keep his newly-captured championship.

It’s been a long road to the top of the totem pole for the Adelaide, South Australia native. After conquering the Australian independent scene in the 2010s, he made his way over to the black-and-gold brand in 2019 and debuted as part of the innovative Breakout Tournament along with Cameron Grimes, Dexter Lumis, and Angel Garza, among others.

He’s had his fair share of ups and downs in that time, but all of the trials and tribulations were well worth for the moment of him holding gold high above his head with his wife by his side.

Coming off his historic title win, The Colossal One spoke with Daily DDT about what it feels like to be a champion, whose title reign he’d like to emulate, the Australian influence in WWE at the moment, and more.

Bronson Reed reflects on winning his first piece of gold in WWE and the feedback he’s received

A video on WWE’s YouTube channel that went up immediately after WWE NXT went off the air last week showed Reed getting emotional following his title win. His wife joining him in the ring while he cut a promo thanking her and the entire audience for their support made the moment mean that much more.

Reed vied for the title twice before: once at NXT: TakeOver XXX in a ladder match last August and again at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night 2, falling short both times. The third time was the charm for him, as he defeated the decorated Johnny Gargano in a grueling Steel Cage match in the night’s main event to become champion.

“It was overwhelming,” Reed said about his reaction to capturing the championship. “Now, it’s all really sunk in. It took a few days. Once I became champion, it was almost like a whirlwind of things happening: you get rushed backstage, I had media to do. The next few days were very similar. Now I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect, and now it’s sunk in that I am North American Champion. I just want to be the best North American Champion I can be.”

The Colossal One noted that the biggest difference between being a champion and not being a champion is that now he knows he has a massive target on his back. Everyone on the roster is going to be gunning for that title and he’s prepared to overcome all obstacles that come his way.

The fact his title win fell on the exact anniversary of when he had his first match 14 years earlier was pure fate.

“I think I came to the realization the weekend before that it was my 14-year anniversary and my wife reminded me,” Reed said. “She goes, ‘Did you realize that 14 years ago was your first match?’ The day before, I was like, ‘This is something we have to speak about.’ And then you got to see that on TV, speaking about that before the match with Johnny.”

He admitted he had his doubts along the way of whether he would achieve that level of success, but every bump in the road led him to where he is today. He added that walking backstage and getting congratulated by Triple H and Shawn Michaels, among other legends, is still surreal to him as a lifelong fan of the business.

“I’ve always prided myself on [being] someone that’s a good person backstage,” Reed said. “I’ve loved this business so much that I want to be able to be that backstage guy and be that locker room leader. When I won the title to see the outpour of positivity from not just fans but also a lot of people involved in the business, that stuff means a lot to me because it means what I want to do is happening and I am doing it. I had people like Finn [Balor] tweet, who is in NXT, but then I had a message from Mark Henry and D’Lo Brown. These are guys I watched as a kid, so that stuff means a lot to me.”

Bronson Reed aspires to be the workhorse champion of NXT

Since its inception in April 2018, the NXT North American Championship has traditionally been the workhorse title of NXT. Its short lineage includes the illustrious likes of Adam Cole, Ricochet, Keith Lee, Damian Priest, and Johnny Gargano, all of whom had great reigns as champion.

Reed wants to not only follow in their footsteps and continue to elevate the prestigious prize but also emulate the magic that Rob Van Dam had as ECW World Television champion from 1998 to 2000. The Intercontinental Championship runs of Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon also come to mind for him.

“RVD is a big [inspiration] because I was such a big ECW fan and I think what he did for that Television title was elevate it to arguably… the fans could say that was the title they wanted defended on the night,” Reed said. “That’s what I want to do. I have no ill-will toward the NXT Champion, whoever it may be, but I want to be the guy who people say, ‘That’s the championship match I need to see.’ If you look at the ’90s growing up, all of the Intercontinental Champions were that. Shawn Michaels at a point, Razor Ramon as well. Those are the guys I watched and I feel like would hold the show to a standard.”

In January 2020, he tweeted he had three primary goals that year: to partake in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania, face Samoa Joe, and win the NXT North American Championship. It took a little longer than he expected, but he finally accomplished the third goal last week.

Despite not winning the title by the time 2020 came to close, it never left his list of goals; rather, it motivated him even more to make it a reality. Having a match at WrestleMania has also since been added to the list.

“I’m someone that if I want to do something, I will pursue that as much as possible,” Reed said. “I know I put that out into the universe that I wanted to be North American Champion, so even though it didn’t happen in 2020, I made sure I still chased that. Sometimes those things become a reality if you set your mind hard enough. Those are still goals I want to do, obviously some harder than others right now, but WrestleMania is definitely something I want as well.”

Bronson Reed talks about the Australian influence in WWE, Samoa Joe, and his possible opponents

Five years ago, the idea of multiple Australian wrestlers holding gold simultaneously in WWE was almost unheard of. Emma, aka Tenille Dashwood, unfortunately never won a title during her stint with the company, and although Murphy and The IIconics were champions at various points in recent years, it wasn’t at the same time.

Currently, three of WWE’s Australian performers are champions: Rhea Ripley, Indi Hartwell, and now Bronson Reed.

Hearing that stat brought joy to The Colossal One, giving him hope that it merely marks the beginning of a bigger Australian revolution in the company and that there are many more Australian title wins to come.

“That makes me really proud,” Reed said. “I’m still a big advocate for the Australian wrestling scene and it was my goal to not just get to WWE and NXT and be the best performer I can be but also to let people know we have a growing scene in Australia. There’s so much talent and untapped potential that I think you’re going to see more champions from Australia in the future.”

With the world slowly opening back up, Reed is looking forward to watching movies in a theater again (Spiral leads his list of films to check out) and traveling back home sometime soon to see family and friends. One thing he misses about Australia is the food, specifically meat pies.

“The meat pies we have back home are a very regular thing,” he explained. “You can go anywhere, like a bakery, and find meat pies. They’re an everyday food in Australia, but we don’t have them in Orlando, so that’s what I miss.”

As previously mentioned, having a match with Samoa Joe has been a goal of his for several years now. That goal is now unfortunately harder to achieve with Joe having been released from the promotion as of April, but he holds out hope it can still happen someday down the road.

The Samoan Submission Machine played a pivotal role in Reed’s development as a wrestling superstar, having followed his career since his days dominating the independent scene.

“I was able to meet him at the end of 2019,” Reed said. “I was a big fan of him as a teenager, so growing up as a kid, I pretty much just watched WWE and WCW, that’s all I really watched. As a teenager, I was exposed to independent wrestling and Samoa Joe was the man at the time. He heavily influenced me into my early ages of wrestling. Even now, you can see there’s an influence of him when I wrestle. When I met him, I said, ‘Hey, we got to have that match,’ and he was all for it. Hopefully, sometime it happens.”

Samoa Joe may not be a possibility for the foreseeable future, but the amount of talent waiting in the wings for a shot at Reed’s NXT North American Championship is limitless. He couldn’t be more excited to mix it up with everyone the black-and-gold brand has to offer, both familiar faces and new blood he has yet to square off with.

“I do want to be that champion that opens it up to anyone,” Reed revealed. “If you want an opportunity at the championship, I’m all for it. Someone that I haven’t wrestled in my career that I think would make a good matchup is Tommaso Ciampa. He’s someone I’d like to get to wrestle in the ring. Pete Dunne is another person I’ve never had a singles match with. At the moment, I think the same people you see in the same realm of NXT North American Championship opportunities, someone like a Dexter Lumis or a Cameron Grimes, they’re guys I’d definitely give a title shot to.”