Trick Williams has become one of the breakout stars in NXT, first being aligned with Carmelo Hayes and now standing out on his own as a singles competitor.
Trick signed with WWE in 2021 with no independent experience. Before he joined WWE, he was involved in football, and nearly signed with another Vince McMahon project.
Speaking to Booker T on his Hall of Fame podcast, Trick discussed his start in WWE.
“Growing up, I did watch wrestling. This is around your day, Book. My first favorite wrestler was ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. I opened a can of whoop-ass at three years old. My mama told me like, ‘Hey, we gotta cut back with the wrestling a little bit. I got in trouble, you know what I mean? Then I stopped watching wrestling for a little bit, and I kind of focused on football. But I knew what was going on. I knew the next generation past the Attitude Era. I watched Booker, and I saw John Cena, Randy Orton, these guys. But I wasn’t all the way into wrestling. I was fully involved with football. After college, I had a minicamp tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles, and I got cut. Then from there, I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I was still trying to play football," he said.
Trick continued, "I had an agent at the time. He was trying to sign me up for the XFL. The XFL was owned by Vince McMahon. So I filled out this questionnaire for the XFL, and then the next day, WWE reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, if you’re interested, we want to bring you in for a tryout.’ Just like you, I never once really thought about wrestling myself. Where I’m from, I don’t know any professional wrestlers. I didn’t know any schools at this point in time. I didn’t know how you even get into it. But I did go to the tryout, and I thought, ‘Man, I think can do this. I think I can do this. I think I’m actually made to do this right here.’ They didn’t sign me right away, so I had to pursue it. I had up my mind. I said, ‘I’m not a football player anymore. In a wrestler.’ So since then, it’s been history."
McMahon revitalized the XFL in 2018 with a new season starting in 2020. The season was cut short due to the pandemic. Trick made his in-ring debut on the October 5, 2021 episode of NXT, teaming with Carmelo Hayes.
Trick most recently competed against Ilja Dragunov at NXT Heatwave.
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