Andre Chase Recalls NXT 2.0’s Push To ‘Dress Younger, Dress More Hip’

Andre Chase, who wrestled under the Andre Chase name during his five-year run in WWE before being released in April 2026, is opening up about the company’s NXT 2.0 rebrand and the strange lengths it went to in chasing a younger, trendier image.

Speaking with Justin Dhillon on The Wrestling Classic podcast, Chase said the mandate to modernize the brand’s look extended well beyond the roster. “Even the commentators were told to dress younger, dress more hip,” he said, pointing to just how far the directive reached during that period of NXT’s history.

For those who lived through it, that detail tracks. The NXT 2.0 era, which launched in September 2021, was a deliberate departure from the black-and-gold, workrate-driven brand that had built its reputation on Takeover specials and a roster stacked with indie standouts. WWE leadership at the time pushed to make NXT feel closer to the main roster — younger call-ups, flashier presentation, a shift away from the “sports” aesthetic toward something more colorful and mainstream. Commentary teams, set design, and even wardrobe choices were reportedly part of that broader visual overhaul, and Chase’s comments suggest the push toward a hipper, younger-skewing look wasn’t limited to whoever was in the ring that week.

Chase himself became something of an unlikely fan favorite during that stretch, building the Chase U faction and leaning into a lovable-professor gimmick that stood in contrast to a lot of what NXT 2.0 was reportedly aiming for stylistically. His run lasted through multiple eras of the brand before he was among the talent let go in the wave of WWE releases this past April, closing out a five-year tenure with the company.

Looking back on NXT 2.0 now, with some distance and outside the WWE system, gives Chase’s comments an added layer of candor. Talent under contract rarely discuss internal creative directives in detail, especially ones as specific as wardrobe notes for commentators. That he’s willing to characterize the rebrand as reaching into every corner of the show, right down to who was calling the action, offers a small but telling window into how aggressively WWE tried to reshape NXT’s identity during that period.

It’s also a reminder of how much NXT has shifted since — the brand has cycled through multiple visual and creative identities in just a few years, from 2.0 back toward a more traditional, workrate-first presentation. Former talent like Chase, now removed from the company, are increasingly willing to reflect on those transitions candidly, and stories like this one offer fans a rare look behind the curtain at just how top-down some of those creative mandates really were.

Whether Chase has more to say about his time in NXT, or his eventual release, remains to be seen, but his comments add another data point to the ongoing conversation about NXT 2.0’s legacy within WWE’s developmental history.