Noam Dar Reflects on Career-Defining Move to NXT UK and Gratefulness to Shawn Michaels

Noam Dar recently opened up to Kenny McIntosh from Inside The Ropes about his career-changing move to NXT UK and expressed his eternal gratitude for Shawn Michaels.

Dar struggled to stand out on the main roster and sought a change, which led him to NXT UK. On the premiere episode, he challenged United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne for the title. In NXT UK, he was granted more creative freedom, which allowed him to showcase his strengths. This move proved successful, enabling him to flourish before returning to the USA and joining the Meta-Four faction.

“Well, firstly transferring to NXT UK was my attempt and risk to take, to put myself in an environment, in a scenario where I could show what I believed I was, what I believed the character was and what I believed I could do with any scenario and circumstance. And to have that space in NXT UK, to have the freedom to be myself, to develop that and to be more actualized is what feels true to me. That was really important for me to have that moment within WWE and try it my way without any attachment to any possible outcome.

For me it was more just I’ve spent x amount of years trying to kind of play by everyone else’s rules, try and do what I think is right, just walking on eggshells. So I knew as a creative person and beyond any commercial success, I just knew I needed to have a moment in my career where I bet on myself or try to do things my way and if it doesn’t work and then at least I would have that resolution. Luckily, obviously, it’s paying off and it was instrumental to where I am right now. I might not even be in WWE if I didn’t make that move and make that change.

Not only is it paying off now, I’m now on a platform in which I can build that further. Meta-Four came around firstly as something different and not just what most people would just expect of a group, how a group gets brought together, or the dynamic of a group. I have great personal relationships with all of them. Me and [Oro] Mensah go back to NXT UK, Lash Legend came over to NXT UK and we hit it off right away. Jakara Jackson has always been close friends with Lash and that community between us was very immediate, which is important. It’s also not essential.

A lot of times people in groups or factions or stables, whatever you want to call them, they don’t always necessarily have the best personal dynamic not in the sense that there’s friction, but they’re just professionally focused. But for us, it was important to make sure that everything feels right to us from the ground up and even know everything feels right to us, and we all feel represented in the right way.

So we’ll have that same feeling that I’m talking about, have the same feeling of like okay, I’m betting on myself, I’m trying to do it my way. And with the steps I’m taking it feels like the steps that I intuitively want to take, then those steps can either be developed here, developed there, taken this way, taken that way, and just let it be more genuine.

The four of us believe that we’ll be superstars in WWE, the four of us believe that whilst we could wait for certain opportunities, we can just collect ourselves together and start demanding those opportunities, demanding those spots and putting ourselves in those scenarios maybe before we’ve been given them.”

In 2021, Dar began hosting his own talk show called Supernova Sessions and formed an on-screen partnership with real-life friend Sha Samuels. On the October 7 episode of NXT UK, Dar defeated Wolfgang to become the number one contender for the NXT UK Heritage Cup. Later that month, Dar defeated Tyler Bate to win the NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship, becoming the first champion of Israeli descent in WWE history.

After losing the Heritage Cup Championship to Mark Coffey in July 2022, Dar regained it a year later at an NXT UK taping. Following the closure of the NXT UK brand in September 2022, Dar went on hiatus from WWE but reappeared on the April 4, 2023 episode of NXT, seeking a new challenger for his renamed NXT Heritage Cup Championship. Dar made his NXT in-ring debut on April 18, defeating Miles Borne.

On May 16, Dragon Lee challenged Dar to a match at NXT Battleground for the Heritage Cup, which Dar accepted. At NXT Battleground, Dar retained the Heritage Cup with assistance from Jakara Jackson, Lash Legend, and Oro Mensah. During a backstage segment on June 6, Dar accepted Nathan Frazer’s challenge for the Heritage Cup and introduced the group as The Meta-Four. The following week, it was revealed that Dar had suffered a knee injury, and Mensah defended the Heritage Cup on his behalf, but was defeated by Frazer, ending Dar’s second reign.

At NXT: Heatwave on August 22, Dar defeated Frazer to win the Heritage Cup for a record-setting third time. At NXT: Halloween Havoc Night 1, Akira Tozawa returned to NXT and stole the Heritage Cup from The Meta-Four. Tozawa returned the cup on Night 2 and challenged Dar to a match, which Dar won. On the February 27, 2024 episode of NXT, Dar lost the Heritage Cup to Charlie Dempsey, ending his third reign.

On March 26, it was announced that The Meta-Four would host NXT Stand & Deliver. Around this time, Dar began a rivalry with new NXT Champion Trick Williams. During a Supernova Sessions on the May 7 episode of NXT, Dar accused Williams of being a fraud and attacked him. On the following episode, Dar was found attacked by an unknown assailant, and later that night, Mensah was defeated by Je’Von Evans after interference from Williams.