Byron Saxton made an appearance on Out of Character with Ryan Satin to discuss a wide range of topics. Here are the highlights:
Working in the news while he was trying to get into wrestling:
“When I was pursuing wrestling before I got signed, I was working in TV news. My mom to this day would probably prefer me to be there. When I told her that I was actually going to try to wrestle for a living, she’s like, ‘Oh, my baby’s gonna get hurt. He’s going to get black eyes. Why can’t you just stay in the nice air conditioning newsroom in the new studio where no one’s gonna hurt you?’ But you have to follow your heart.”
His wrestling career before Tough Enough:
“I was actually doing work on the independent circuit in Florida and Georgia. So I started in the Indies in 2003. I just started kind of helping out behind the scenes. That turned into me doing interviews, which ended up with me actually wrestling. So I was doing basically three different things. I would help out behind the scenes on the Indies, I would ring announce, and I would wrestle depending on the show. But I always knew obviously the goal was to make it to WWE. I was getting experience and I started sending in tapes. Tough Enough was an example. At the time that I sent in that tape, I was actually working as a production assistant at the new station. I heard about the Tough Enough tryout, so I sent the tape in. This was probably the third time I had sent a tape to the WWE by the time Tough Enough came around. I remember they called me and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we love your audition tape. We want you to come out’, and I’m thinking ‘Yes this is my chance. I finally get to make it to the WWE and live my dream.’ They flew us out to Venice Beach California. A lot of notable names were out there. The Miz was obviously the most popular name that was at that tryout as well as The Boogeyman and Luke Gallows.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
