AEW superstar Keith Lee recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho to discuss his time in WWE, which include the former NXT champion speaking on his experience working with Vince McMahon, and how difficult it was for him to adopt his new persona, Bearcat. Highlights are below.
How Vince pulled him aside for a chat regarding his new Bearcat persona:
What happened is, when I was about to come back, they hit me with the vision for the Bearcat thing. During that time, I was like, ‘I don’t understand what that is. I’m not sure I’m feeling that.’ They brought me back as myself and then, my second match — first match, lost to (Bobby) Lashley. Second match, lost to (Karrion) Kross — In the middle of the show, Vince pulls me to a room and wants to have a talk. Vince doesn’t leave the show. Middle of Raw, semi and main event coming up and he’s like, ‘Let’s go chat.’ ‘You’re the guy on the headphones, what are you doing?’ It was in that conversation that he was basically like, ‘I need you to do this and I need you to be this.’ ‘I work for you. If that’s what you want, that’s what we’re going to do.
Says Vince told him that he sounded “too smart” for his own good:
The weird thing, you mentioned the way that I speak; my cadence, the way I seem thoughtful about how I deliver things, my choice of diction, all of those things were something that Vince was not a fan of. To the point where he literally told me, ‘You sound too smart for your own good.’ I don’t understand what that means. He wanted something more grimey. I don’t think I delivered that for him. He wanted some intense guy and I think I can be intense, but I need a reason to be intense. It’s easy for me to flip a switch, but if it doesn’t make sense, it’s hard for me to do that. I can’t be…I tried…I don’t think I’m very good at it and that’s something that facilitated that. I’m not a big angry grunty yelling guy. I’m not that until someone makes me that and it’s usually a match or story that causes that. When there is no competitive match that pushes me or no story that gives me reason for a character to be that, it’s something…maybe that’s what he means when he says ‘I’m too smart,’ to me, it’s illogical. I like to do my best to make sense of what we’re doing.
Says that was a difficult time because he couldn’t figure out the cadence of Bearcat:
That was a difficult time, truly. I did a lot to try, I talked to myself in the mirror, I made faces in the mirror. Grunts, different yells, screams, whatever it took to try and deliver this character. I don’t know if I failed, but there were times where that spark was there, but it literally took me asking someone to beat me up backstage before a match in order to enter that mindset.
On the direction he was given:
Be intense, be angry,’ that’s it. That’s what I tried to facilitate, but then they would want me to cut promos similar to the way I did before. ‘You guys have a problem with the way I speak. How would you like this promo delivered?’ This is where I would like something delivered for me. I don’t normally care for that, I prefer to go off the cuff and feel it, but if this character is so far removed from what I’ve been doing, I would like something to tell me who and what this character is and why it exists and where it comes from. As much as I tried to make things in terms of story, either it wasn’t what was asked for or I was asked to not use it anymore. Bearcat Wright is one of those things. ‘Don’t reference him.’ Alright, so be it.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful
)