Andre Chase says he tried to save Chase U with cold hard numbers, but WWE had already made up its mind.
During a recent appearance on Between Two Jobs with Duke Hudson, Chase opened up about WWE’s decision to disband Chase University. According to him, when WWE told him the group was being broken up, they did not really explain why. So Chase tried to make the business case himself, pointing to merch sales, ratings, TV time, and crowd reactions.
“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.”
Chase said one of the biggest arguments in his favor was merchandise. He claimed a merch rep told him Chase U was selling at the same level as NXT’s champions, Trick Williams and Roxanne Perez, despite not getting the same kind of spotlight.
“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.’”
That’s where Chase’s frustration really kicked in. He said Chase U was checking the exact boxes WWE always says matter, but the company still wanted to move on.
“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.”
Chase argued that Chase U was doing all of that with far less promotion than NXT’s top stars, which made the decision even harder for him to understand.
“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.”
But according to Chase, none of that changed anything. He said he asked creative to explain how ending Chase U made business sense, and they basically told him it was just the direction they were going. That was when Chase realized the meeting was not really a discussion.
“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.”
This all lines up with Chase’s earlier frustration that WWE knew Chase U had value, but kept using that value to help other people instead of fully rewarding the group. He previously said Chase U was getting heavy TV time, gaining viewers, selling merch, and still somehow being told the success was not for them.
At the end of the day, Andre Chase is saying WWE did not kill Chase U because the numbers were bad. He says the numbers were good, the merch was moving, the fans were reacting, and the act was working. WWE just decided it was over anyway.
Do you think WWE made a mistake by ending Chase U? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments below.