WWE: Joe Hendry on His NXT Title Victory, Brie Bella on Bryan Danielson Has Been Training Her for WWE Return & How She Kept Being Told “No” For Previous Return Attempts, Corey Graves Teaching Sports Broadcast Class at Point Park College

Feb 4, 2026

Joe Hendry Comments on His NXT Title Victory

As noted before, Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida featured Joe Hendry defeating Ricky Saints, Shiloh Hill, Sean Legacy, Jackson Drake, Dion Lennox, and Keanu Carver in a Seven-Man Ladder match to become the new NXT Champion. This title had been previously vacated by Oba Femu after his official call-up to WWE’s main roster.

A recent episode of the Busted Open After Dark podcast featured Hendry as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Hendry’s thoughts about his NXT Championship victory.

“I’m feeling so many different emotions. I have so much to say, and I will do my best to get it out here coherently, but… in my life, we have different goals, different challenges and this particular championship means so much to me. This championship represents what the last six, eight months here full-time at the Performance Center has been for me. I made the choice to come here to WWE and I made the choice to come and train at NXT. I get in the ring every day with those top-level, first-class athletes and I knew I had to push my cardio and my conditioning to a new level and I knew I just had to keep acquiring new skills and there were days when it was just so tough and I just felt like I was just pushing things forward inch by inch and there were moments where I was frustrated, I wanted to progress and then, things just started to click, and I started to learn more and more and more and when you’re around this environment at the P.C. every day, you can’t help but get better, and that was my only goal, was just to get as good as I could possibly be at professional wrestling because the last couple of years was a marketing exercise for me, right? It was to tell the world who Joe Hendry is and now, the journey was for me to step up to a championship-caliber athlete that can go to the very top of this business and in order to do that, I had to truly humble myself and I’ve been training every day, giving absolutely everything, and you know, to have that goal realized and actualized in this championship title that’s been held by some of the most prestigious names in the business. I’m so honored and privileged to represent this brand.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Brie Bella Comments on Bryan Danielson Has Been Training Her for Her WWE Return & How She Kept Being Told “No” For Previous WWE Return Attempts

As noted before, this past Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble 2026 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia featured WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella making her surprise return to WWE as a surprise entrant in the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

A recent episode of the Notsam Wrestling Live! podcast featured The Bella Twins (Brie & Nikki Bella) as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Brie’s thoughts about how her husband Bryan Danielson has been training her to help with her comeback to WWE.

Brie Bella -“Obviously, my husband might be one of the greatest coaches in the world.”
Nikki Bella – “I mean, you should see my text message from him.”
Brie – “And he’s a very hard coach.”
Nikki – “I’m showing (William) Regal, like, ‘So this is what Bryan wants me to practice today.’”

Brie also gave her thoughts about how she had been told “no” during her previous attempts at a return to WWE and praised WWE President Nick Khan for reaching out in late 2025 and bringing her back for a return run.

Brie – “I’ve been wanting to come back. I would joke about it a lot but yeah, I kept hearing no, and so when it came Thanksgiving time, I was like, ‘Alright, I’m not going back,’ and so, I kind of just started to look at 2026 differently. I had a couple other opportunities that were put on the table so I started to engage in those and then Nick Khan all of a sudden called me and I wasn’t expecting it and just really wanted me back. I was very shocked, and I was like, ‘Alright….’ And I’m grateful to Nick for bringing me back because I definitely thought the door was closed, and I’m happy that it re-opened.”
Nikki – “I remember when I got my call from Nick. It’s so unexpected and then you’re like, woah, that’s life-changing.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2

Corey Graves Teaching Sports Broadcast Class at Point Park College

Triblive reported that WWE RAW brand commentator Corey Graves currently is teaching a college course on sports broadcasting at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

It was reported that this class is held on Wednesdays and is called Live Sports Production.

It was also reported that Graves originally started out as just doing speaking appearances to students that then turned into a new teaching role for him and new college class following an exchange between university officials.

Graves reportedly thought the idea of him teaching a class was “absurd” at first.

In an interview with the outlet, Point Park University’s chair of the school of communications department, Dr. Bernie Ankney, gave his thoughts about his reasons for his decision to let Graves teach a class at the university.

“I was really impressed with the way he interacted and mentored 18-, 19-, 20-year-old students and just watching the energy he brought to his presentation. I thought it would be worth looking into Corey teaching a class. Somebody like that, if you put him in the classroom, students are familiar with his work.”

Graves gave his thoughts about how WWE’s parent company TKO Group supports the idea of him teaching and his belief that this likely wouldn’t have happened under the previous ownership regime.

“TKO has seemingly been a lot more open to collaboration and allowing talent to step outside WWE, more so than the old WWE regime. Anybody who works for WWE has had an opportunity of some sort that they’ve had to turn down because they couldn’t get permission, or it was a conflict of interest. This really isn’t a wrestling class; it was a broadcasting class. I took it to my manager, and they’ve been supportive to help me with making this happen.”