Reggie recently reflected on his road to WWE.
Ahead of the 2022 Royal Rumble, the former 24-7 Champion sat down with Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc. where he explained that even though he didn't work the independent circuit prior to signing with WWE, his time in the circus was his way of paying those dues.
“Circus and wrestling are very similar, I didn’t grind in the indies in wrestling. But I grinded on the indies with circus. I would do a show in Chicago, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I would set up the tent, three shows, three shows, it wasn’t Cirque du Soleil, it was a smaller circus. Then I would drive back at night to be with my daughter. I did the indie work in circus, paying my dues,” Reggie said.
When he was presented with the opportunity to transition from the circus to WWE, Reggie jumped at the chance.
“Our coach said, ‘hey, WWE wants to do an exchange program, do any of you guys want to do it?’ I said, ‘yes I do, when is it?’ So we did the exchange on Monday, which was our day off. So I went to the Performance Center, and that whole night I was just conjuring up a little plan. I said, ‘this is my exit strategy.’ I was always looking for a way to leave the circus because I was tired of it after 16 years,” he said.
According to Reggie, he made a strong first impression on Scotty 2 Hotty and Matt Bloom at the Performance Center and was invited back for a tryout shortly after the initial exchange. After acing the tryout, Reggie reveals that he was offered a contract almost immediately.
“We did the exchange, I completely crushed it,” Reggie claimed. “I did an acrobatic move in the ring, one of the moves I normally do, and Scotty 2 Hotty said, ‘hey kid, do that again.’ I turned around and said, ‘who, me Scotty?’ I showed Matt Bloom, and I went to Matt Bloom a little bit after that and said, ‘hey, how does one get involved?’
“He said, ‘we’ve got a tryout next week if you can square it with your people, I’ll invite you to that.’ I was like, ‘oh, I was off next week, I was going to have a vacation.’ So I flew home Sunday, went back to Orlando Tuesday, tryouts Wednesday, Thursday, crushed it. Basically got offered a contract right there and then,” Reggie said.
In late 2020, Reggie (then Reginald) debuted on SmackDown as Carmella's sommelier. Over the past year, however, he has become synonymous with the 24-7 Championship and holds the record for longest reign with the belt at 113 days. He can currently be seen every Monday on WWE Raw.
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