Sidney Akeem recalls his early days in WWE.
In 2020, Reginald debuted on WWE TV as an assistant to Carmella. Throughout 2021, Reginald continued as a manager for Sasha Banks and the duo of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler before transitioning to a wrestler for the 24/7 division.
While speaking to Fightful for a new interview, the former Reginald talked about being quickly called up to the main roster in 2020.
"Well, they didn't have to tell me because I knew for a fact it was rare. I was blessed with the opportunity. I am a creator, I am a person that, I'm just gonna attack whatever opportunity head on and I'm just gonna go for it. I remember a coach told me, [ACO] at the PC when I got there, he said, ‘Dude, you're playing catch up. You're not gonna get better by training for three to four times a week. You have to do more.’ So I said, ‘Okay, cool.’ So I went into goal mode. I started training outside the PC with EJ Nduka, the Judge, Ricochet, Isaiah, Rich Swann, Joaquin Wilde, Moose. I'm training with all of these guys because the pandemic happened—I got there in January—pandemic happened the day after my birthday, was everything was shut down March 14th. I said, ‘I don't have time to take a vacation.’ So I was training throughout the whole pandemic, and then we get back to training around like August or something like that. I remember I came back and I was in the best shape of my life. I had a PC live match and some people came up to me and said, ‘Dude, you really impressed a lot of people. We have some big plans for you,’ and then when that happened, not a month later, I get called to SmackDown to be an on screen—not even a character. It was just an on screen moment for Carmella as her sommelier and when that happened, first time that happened, I got my butt whooped. I got thrown to a table, I got hit with a finisher, I got slapped, hit with the clipboard. table flipped on me. It was just insane. I'm like, ‘That was cool, that lasted as long as it lasted. I don't expect to be back.’ But I was happy because I was going back to 205 live stuff at NXT. Yeah, that is insane."
The former Reginald went on to talk about making his in-ring debut for the company in a match against Sasha Banks.
"You know, I did my first PC live, my first match ever was at the PC and it was my second match and it was in front of Edge. Edge gave me some great feedback saying, dude, to be your second match ever, that was incredible. I never did like a show in Orlando. I never did anything like that, [coconut,] a live event. It was just really thrown into the fire. I'm not gonna lie, I performed my entire life—16 years of performing—I was nervous as hell and we were in the virtual fans. I was nervous as hell. But when I went out there, I'm like, ‘Oh, this is very similar to what I'm used to.’ So I went out there and had fun and that thing blew up. It blew up."
Elsewhere in the interview, Akeem said that he's in good spirits following his departure from WWE. Learn more by clicking here.
Also, check out Fightful's full interview with Sidney Akeem in the video linked at the top of this article.
