Joe Gacy Reveals Vince McMahon Initially Wanted Him Off NXT TV After Promo Where It Seemed Like Gacy Was ‘Making Fun Of The Left’

Joe Gacy looks back at his NXT 2.0 days.

Joe Gacy’s run in WWE came to an end in April 2026. He was let go from the company alongside fellow members of the Wyatt Sicks.

With Gacy now back on the independent scene, he is beginning to make the media rounds to discuss his run with WWE. He spoke to The FiveMarks about the cult leader character he portrayed in NXT and recalled chatting with NXT overseer Shawn Michaels about the character.

“I was working on this weird cult leader type thing going on in promo class, and then it kind of evolved into him (Shawn Michaels) pulling me aside and having another meeting and essentially was like, ‘Hey, I have this idea. You’re gonna do this’ and his wording was like, ‘I see it as a Scientology type of thing. Essentially, you’re gonna lure people in with the social justice warrior thing’ at the time because that was kind of a hot button at that moment, and he’s like, ‘You’re gonna lure these people in for this…’ It was always meant to kind of turn into a cult. That was always kind of the point of it.”

Gacy remembers his first promo as that character and it garnering attention from right-wing media outlets who thought he was making fun of the left.

Gacy said that was not his intention, but he understands how it came across. Gacy went on to reveal that former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon initially wanted him off television after seeing the headlines WWE was being attached to. He then learned that after McMahon actually watched the promo, he did a 180 on his thinking.

Gacy remembers going into a room with Shawn Michaels, a head writer, and also Bruce Prichard was on the phone. They had a three-page promo that they wanted him to recite on TV.

“I went out there and cut that first promo, which I was happy with it, and then it got headlines… thinking that the company and myself were making fun of the left which was never my intention. But, I could see how it came across, and then I got pulled off TV. So, Shawn had to call me and was like, ‘Hey, Vince saw what we did; he saw all the headlines. We’re gonna have to take you off TV’ and I said, ‘Oh, that sucks. Okay,’ and then a day later, apparently, Vince (McMahon) actually watched the promo, and totally did a 180 on it and then fell in love with the idea… This is kind of a crazy story. The most stressful moment I’ve had in my career. It was the week after my debut. I wasn’t supposed to do anything on the show. But, I was there; I was hanging out. 30 minutes before bell time, I get pulled in the office and it’s Shawn Michaels and one of the head writers and they’re on the phone — I believe Bruce Prichard’s on the phone and they’re just typing something and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ He’s like, ‘Alright, they have this three-page, full-page promo.’ Give it to me and they’re like, ‘You’re gonna do this tonight,’ and I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ So I have like 45 minutes to learn this three-page promo and deliver it live on TV. So that was very stressful. I think the beginning of the ‘woke Joe Gacy,’ as people say, the very beginning was a very stressful time. Because it was heavy promo, with a lot of stuff that they wanted me to kind of read verbatim, rather than me kind of writing my own promos which down the line they did trust me enough to let me do a little bit of that. But, very early on… ‘We want this word for word. This is how we want it’ and I said, ‘Okay. I’ll do whatever you ask.’”

Gacy is now going by the name Joseph Sawyer. He’s appeared for GCW, The Wrestling REVOLVER, and the ALW promotion.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The FiveMarks with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.