Tony D'Angelo addressed the long-running debate over NXT's place in WWE during a new interview with Complex Graps, making clear that he believes in the brand as a full third brand alongside Raw and SmackDown.

Perception of NXT has shifted in recent years, with fans and observers often arguing over whether the Tuesday night brand sits on the same level as Raw and SmackDown or still functions primarily as developmental. D'Angelo called out that inconsistency directly, saying it is annoying when people pick and choose when to label NXT developmental versus when to treat it as the third brand.

D'Angelo said he takes a lot of pride in NXT and that the rest of his co-workers do as well. He pointed to Shawn Michaels as someone who sees NXT as a third brand because that is what it is, and he pushed back on the idea that a slow week or one bad match should be used to dismiss the entire roster.

Absolutely. I take a lot of pride in it and I know the rest of my co-workers take a lot of pride in it. It's annoying sometimes because people pick and choose when to call it developmental and when to call it the third brand, you know what I mean? I see it, the rest of my co-workers, I know Shawn Michaels sees it as a third brand because that's just what it is. Oh, we had an off week or there was a bad match, see that's why it's developmental. It's just all BS and it's all just noise. We're gonna keep doing our thing by continuing to represent WWE and NXT as a whole in a positive way. Keep chugging along. All the people that say negative stuff, it's just noise. Who cares. We have a goal in mind and we're gonna continue to do that.

D'Angelo framed the negative chatter as noise and said the NXT roster has a goal in mind and plans to keep representing WWE and NXT in a positive way.