Andre Chase Says He Wasn’t Told Why Chase U Broke Up, Recalls Arguing It Was A Bad Idea
Andre Chase recalls arguing against WWE splitting up Chase U.
Starting not long after the inception of NXT 2.0, Chase University was one of the standout examples of the brand putting a bigger emphasis on bold characters in 2021. Led by Andre Chase, the group helping younger wrestlers like Bodhi Hayward, Riley Osbourne, and Thea Hail gain experience, while storylines with Duke Hudson and Ridge Holland helped propel them to NXT Tag Team Championship success. Now, Andre Chase has recalled vehemently disagreeing with plans to split the group.
Speaking on Between Two Jobs, Andre Chase, now known as Andre Chance, recalls learning of WWE’s plans to split Chase U and trying to push back against it.
“When they tell me what they’re doing, they don’t really tell me why they’re doing it. Which obviously they don’t have to. But because I think this is a conversation, I start from a business perspective, from a numbers and a dollars and cents perspective, I started to say I think this is a bad idea. At Halloween Havoc, the merch guy Teddy pulls me aside and he goes, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know you sold just as much merchandise as Trick and Roxanne, the champions. Now that I think about it, you did that at No Mercy, too. I think Heatwave, you had the highest selling shirt.’ — So I talk about that. I talk about how we are the highest selling merch. Also, I talk about how good our ratings are, which they already have to know because they book us in five segments a show. The metrics that they say are important, I’m telling them why we have achieved these metrics. With very little advertising and very little help from them, why does it make sense that we’re selling as much merch as Trick Williams and Roxanne Perez when they’re in every main event, every piece of advertising? It shouldn’t compute and somehow we have done it. I’m telling this to the creative team. ‘From a business perspective, can you please tell me why this is a good idea?’ And they can’t. They just say, ‘This is the direction we’re going.’ And that’s when I realized it wasn’t a conversation. They had already made up their minds and I go, ‘Okay. I can’t do anything to change your mind.’ No matter the ratings, no matter the merchandise sales, no matter the reactions, they were just ready to move on.”
-Andre Chance
When Chase University was forced to disband following Andre Chase’s loss to Ridge Holland in November 2024, the former leader of the group immediately lacked direction. Just months later, the company attempted to restart Chase U with Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors, although Andre’s release back in April halted any attempts to revive the university.
Elsewhere in the interview, the former WWE star revealed he originally wasn’t going to be used on TV at all. You can read more on his comments here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Andre Chase’s time in WWE as soon as we hear more.
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