Reggie Says Working Independent Circuses Was How He Paid His Dues To Be In WWE

Reggie was recently interviewed by Wrestling Inc., where he spoke about his time in the circus.

“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.”

On making the transition from the circus to wrestling:

“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.”

Reggie then explained how it went.

“We did the exchange, I completely crushed it. 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.”