You may have noticed Kenny Dykstra of the Spirit Squad competing in several independent wrestling promotions within the past year, and Dykstra said he has WWE to thank for allowing him and Mikey to briefly return to the promotion.
Dykstra appeared on Fightful's "The List & Ya Boy" podcast to talk about his work on the indies since he and fellow Spirit Squad member Mikey were brought back to WWE late last year. While the remaining members of the former World Tag Champions sporadically worked on the independent scene, it was their return to WWE that increased their bookings. Dykstra said the security of working WWE matches, when compared to working indy matches, is generally safer and allowed them to keep working outside of WWE.
"It's interesting. There's more creative control on our end. It all happened really fast because we were getting booked by WWE out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere. You get nervous when that first time happens. Our thought process simply was, 'You know, we can make more money on the indies while we do this on TV.' At the same time, not to say the indies are unsafe, but sometimes you don't know who you work with. What if something happens? Matches aren't structured the same as they are in WWE. There's a lot more high-flying, people want to do different things, different styles, which is great. We were concerned because what if we get hurt and can't do [WWE]? Are they going to sign us? They never ended up signing us, which I think is the right move on our part," Dykstra said.
When Dykstra and Mikey returned to SmackDown to aid The Miz in his Intercontinental Championship feud against Dolph Ziggler, who was Nicky in the Spirit Squad when the stable first entered WWE, Dykstra said he noticed an upswing in booking appearances and opportunities to wrestle all over the country.
"Absolutely. After the first return, I put out little pressers on some small promotions around the area and that we're available and boom, boom, immediately got signed. I realized that we may have something here. It was tough too because of the squad, at first, the Spirit Squad had this stigma to it like it's such a gimmick. It was what it was, but now it's our turn to make I our own and that's why we're now known as the Squad, probably because of legal reasons as well. Now we have started to become more accepting and we started to turn into some sort of a nostalgia act," Dykstra said.
In the past couple of years, Dykstra and Mikey competed in various promotions outside WWE such as House of Hardcore, Chikara and Ring of Honor, including answering an open challenge issued by The Young Bucks for the ROH Tag Team Championships.
"The List & Ya Boy," hosted by Fightful Managing Editor Sean Ross Sapp and Fightful owner Jimmy Van, can be seen live on YouTube and on Fightful every Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. Dykstra's comments can be seen in the video above.
