Keith Lee Comments on Becoming WWE NXT Champion, Wrestling Roman Reigns at Survivor Series Last Year, More

There was a big main event on WWE NXT’s Great American Bash show last night as Keith Lee defeated Adam Cole to become the WWE NXT Champion. Lee went into the Winner Take All match as the NXT North American Champion, so now Lee is a double champion in NXT. We don’t know if Lee will be defending both titles going forward or if he would have to give one up. We’ll find that out on future NXT shows.

Lee was interviewed by Sports Illustrated following his win and they covered a lot including what Lee felt when he held up the NXT Title and the NXT North American Title at the same time.

“In that moment, I was on another level. Everything in my body hurt, but that was when I was hit with the realization that it was set in stone, that I did it.”

Lee also spoke about wanting to represent African American people and what kind of champion he wants to be.

“I want to be the representation for African American people, to have someone that looks like them and represents them on the top stage and has top caliber matches. But I also want the world to understand that if you work hard, you can fight your way to this position. This is a position no one saw me in a year ago.”

“I also want to be the representation that bridges the gap. I don’t want people to think I’m special because I’m African American. I want to be a guy, globally, that people can look at and say, ‘That’s our limitless champion.”

At Survivor Series last year, Lee represented NXT and had a showdown with Smackdown’s Roman Reigns at the end of an elimination match. Lee had a lot of praise for Reigns.

“Roman doesn’t get enough credit for what he means to this sport. And he went above-and-beyond to make that moment. The simple gesture of our fist bump, he turned that into magic. That was the start of something very special for me. He is such a superstar that he made that moment overshadow everything else that happened in that match, and I won’t forget it.”

As for what’s next for Lee as a double champion in NXT, he is open to anything at this point.

“I need to take a breath and take everything in, then I’ll start to formulate my next move. We’ll see what happens. If they want me to start by defending both championships, hell, you know I’m up for that.”

Check out the rest of the Sports Illustrated interview here with Lee talking about NXT coach Terry Taylor helping him when he felt down, watching wrestling with his grandma, the recent death of his wrestling coach and more.

Here are two videos that WWE posted featuring Lee talking about his title win too.

I’ll leave you with this video of Lee talking about Roman Reigns earlier this year.