When Apollo Crews headed down to NXT in June of 2022 after a run as “The Nigerian Prince,” fans of WWE wondered what the future held for the former IC Champion. Would he serve as a mid-card barometer, filling the role previously held by performers like Eric Young before they were fired? Or did creative – aka Shawn Michaels – actually have something for him that the fine folks on the RAW and SmackDown writing teams simply did not?

Fortunately, it was the latter; Crews came down to NXT with a vision, befriended Bron Breakker for months before they ultimately had their big bout at Deadl1ne, and in the end, the veteran pro put his pal over with a pretty impressive win at the final “Premium Live Event” of the year, even if the celebration was shortlived thanks to a post-match attack by “Pillar of NXT,” Grayson Waller. Speaking with Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Crews embraced an opportunity to return to developmental and ultimately feels like it set him up perfectly for another run on either RAW or SmackDown.

“I was like man, I’m 100% for it,” Crews said h/t Fightful. “It was one of those things where it was like, ‘Is it long term or is it gonna be short term?’ Me, honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna control what I can control. You give me this opportunity, I’m gonna come out here and kill it. If they bring me back to Raw or SmackDown two weeks later, so be it. If they bring me back in two months, so be it. In my head, I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity that I was being presented with because essentially I was presented the opportunity to kind of change the trajectory of my career and kind of really start over, which not a lot of people get to do. It that this stuff didn’t happen, but we’re almost like, ‘Let’s just wipe that slate clean, and we’re gonna start right here.’ It’s like okay, we’re gonna work on what should have been done the first time.”

After lamenting that maybe his initial run in NXT didn't quite set him up for long-term success on the main roster, as he eagerly accepted the opportunity to hit the road after just 52 matches with the promotion, Crews now feels he's set up for success when he returns to the main roster.

“So just being blessed with this opportunity to come over, come down and help myself while helping other young talent as well, it’s a blessing and it’s an honor, and I’m gonna take full advantage of this, which I feel like I’ve done these last six months already,” Crews said. “Whenever the time is right, whenever that decision’s made, we can get back, hopefully get back to Raw, SmackDown, get onto premium live events, get on the WrestleManias, the Royal Rumbles, the Survivor Series, the SummerSlams. That’s what I feel like everybody comes here for. They’d be lying if they told you they didn’t.”

Is Crews done in developmental? One would assume so, yes, but “The Heartbreak Kid” may have other plans.

Shawn Michaels still has creative plans for Apollo Crews in NXT.

While one would assume that Crews would be headed back to WWE's main roster now that he's been defeated by Breakker, Michaels still has some creative plans for the former United States Champion, assuming, of course, he's allowed to stay in NXT by Paul “Triple H” Levesque, as he explained to Wrestling Inc.'s Nick Hausman in the post-Deadl1ne media session.

“I have no intention of letting him go anywhere,” Shawn joked, h/t Fightful. “Again, I don't make the main roster decisions, I can say that much for now. We love him here in NXT. We have absolute plans for Apollo going forward. He fell short tonight from an NXT Championship situation but we have more to come for him from him in NXT. I'll say this. Look, Apollo brings us a great deal of experience, and that's something that we try to hold on to here for as long as we possibly can. Obviously, being out there with Bron [Breakker] is beneficial to us in Bron's development, but we feel like Apollo has a lot more knowledge and experience to help a number of other people here. So we'd love to continue to keep him here for as long as we can and get his experience out there with as many of our young talent as we can.”

As improbable as it may have seemed a few weeks ago, Crews may actually have a longer run left in NXT before he leaves developmental for greener pastures. This time, let's hope he's picked up that extra seasoning he missed out on last time.