Former NXT Talent CJ Parker was interviewed by Maria Menounos’ AfterBuzz TV last week. Below are some highlights:
Which NXT talent do you think is underrated and people should look out for?
There are some guys [at NXT] that are underrated that I can’t wait to catch on in a big way. Two of those guys are Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder… Those two men know their way around the ring. They make anybody in there with them better. They put on great matches at the live events and kind of remind me of the Brainbusters, Tully and Arn. They’re gonna catch on. If they get any script time on that TV show, they’re gonna catch on because they’re good and they both love wrestling. I want them to just do so great.
The other guy is Tye Dillinger. He’s a hell of a worker and a hell of a guy. He can work with anybody. I see him take young guys that are just starting and I see him take them out at a live event and make them look like a million bucks. That’s one of the best things you can say about a performer is how good they make people around them. He’s the man and I desperately want him to get an opportunity so he can show the world how good he is.
You’ve said you want to live out of a suitcase for a while and wrestle all over the world. Did any of the indie guys who came into NXT more recently like Finn Balor, Hideo Itami or Kevin Owens give you any advice about getting out there?
I started in the system and got good within the system, but guys would come in from the indies that I was lucky enough to be on the show with. Guys like Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Seth Rollins and then later on guys like Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville, Hideo Itami, Finn Balor and Kevin Owens.I can’t help but to be drawn close to them and learn from them because they’re what I want to be. They’re great. They’re excellent. They became stars before they even came to NXT.
Talking with them, it’s hard to love wrestling the same way that they love wrestling. My route was a little different and I wish I went through what they went through. I wish I would have had those experiences around the world. I wish I would have lived in the Dragon Gate Dojo like [Adrian] Neville. I wish my story was like Sami Zayn’s. I wish I would have been Ring of Honor champ like Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins and I’ll never get to experience that unless I do it right now.
That’s kind of what I was thinking when I was toying with this. If I want Triple H to look at me the way I think he looks at those guys, then it’s time to do this because I’m 25 and if I’m going to do this, I better hurry up. So that was the decision.
When I made [the decision to leave] they helped me so much. They were supportive. Obviously they wanted me to stay there, because we were friends, but they could tell by the way I would talk about it that I was dead set on proving myself to WWE that there is more in me than what I was doing. I was fine with what I was doing, but I knew in my heart that I was capable of doing more. They knew I was dead set on leaving and they just assured me that I’ll be okay and they would help me any way they can and they have. That’s why I say I’m so lucky, because people don’t have to help me, but they do.
We saw you were a part of the Wrestlemania Golf Pro/Am. Are you a golfer?
That was my first game. Funny story about that, it wasn’t supposed to be me, it was supposed to be Booker T. They called me at like 7:25 in the morning, I didn’t think I had anything to do until Axxess in the evening so I was ready to sleep for a while. They called me like, “Hey can you come down to the bus right now to do this charity golf thing?” and I was like, “Uhh…I don’t know if I have the right clothes for that, but yeah I think so!” Luckily, I had a great team who tried to teach me. Bless them, they tried to teach me for 18 holes. Oh man, I was terrible. I was hitting it off into the Pacific Ocean., crushing it on the cliffs. I almost killed Hornswoggle, poor guy.
