NXT Superstar and former TNA wrestler Eric Young was a guest writer for ESPN's Life on the Road column, and talked about one of his first tryouts with the WWE. Edge & Christian and Chris Jericho made sure to look out for him, and he's never forgotten their kindness.
You can read an excerpt below:
"I was wrestling all over North America, and had started sending tapes and DVDs and such to the WWE, and started to get tryouts. One of my very first times, I can remember being backstage and having Edge and Christian and Chris Jericho going out of their way to check on me throughout the day. I think that went beyond the brotherhood of wrestling, and probably had a lot to do with them all being Canadians. They’re all parts of this big operation, flying all over the world doing house shows, and being on “Raw,” and they’ve got their matches for that night to worry about. Meanwhile, I’m there, and just being backstage at a WWE event for the first time is a big deal to me. I’m nervous, and I want to make the right impression. It’s this mixed-up thing where I was trying to be out of the way of all this crazy stuff going on, but in the way and noticed by the right people at the same time. So it’s this weird, mixed-emotions thing, and they were able to help guide me through it because to them, it’s just another day in a long line of crazy days.”
“I can remember one of my first ones, and it was in Chicago. I think I had been to a couple of shows, but hadn’t worked yet. I think this was one of the first times I worked on “Sunday Night Heat,” I think, but I can’t remember exactly. I ended up doing 20 or 30 “Sunday Night Heat” and “Velocity” shows. But I remember Edge and Christian, Lance Storm and Jericho going out of their way to make sure that everything was cool, that I was OK and knew where to be. Part of it was, I think, beyond all those guys having a reputation of being good guys, was that they knew that I was from Canada and how much harder it was to get a spot because of that. Because in order for you to work regularly for WWE, the company had to sponsor you a visa, so you had to go above and beyond what the Americans getting tryouts were doing. Those guys knew my struggles, probably because they went through similar moments of their own, and when they passed that respect and concern along to me, it was another huge moment in my career where the brotherhood really took care of me.”
Young also wrote about a time Lance Storm dared him to eat "three hub-cap sized pancakes," and reflected on his time training Tye Dillinger, who he's currently feuding with in NXT.
