Pro-wrestling star Levi Rolla Cooper (fka Tucker) recently spoke with The OTR Show to discuss a number of different topics, including how he still regrets the break-up storyline with Otis in WWE, and how different the main roster was from their NXT days. Highlights are below.
On his transition from NXT to the main roster and the pitches he made when he got there:
“Culture shock. Different world up there. I think for the first year, I think we were doing very good. The situation kind of panned out the way that it did, and I think COVID had a big piece to do with that. The dominoes kind of fell after that. I thought our first six months were good and we had a couple of good pay-per-view matches…..I was trying so hard to pitch us as barbeque guys and having aprons made up for us. I could never get it going, and that was disappointing. I pitched it like APA-style where, if we were never on the show, we’ll just stand in the back and barbeque. You’re not going to tell me we wouldn’t get good stuff. So, it was a culture shock. But I felt like we were on a good roll. We had some good meetings with Vince and touched on some ideas. He seemed to like the barbeque idea. Everything is about timing there. We pitched it and he really liked it, but it was right around the move to FOX and there were other things going on and it fell by the wayside. We didn’t understand how to keep our foot on the pedal. That was definitely something I learned, but it was too late. It’s just so much bigger of a machine. You try to learn what everyone does and how to work with them.”
How he still regrets breaking up with Otis:
“That’s really the only regret of my wrestling career to this point. I wish I would have said no to hitting him in the head with the briefcase. I didn’t ask the right questions as to what we’d be doing moving forward. The way that it happened, happened. I wasn’t initially booked and then I got called to come to the stadium fairly late and found out about it fairly late. I feel like that happened intentionally so I wouldn’t put my foot down or ask the right questions. That’s on me. I ultimately said yes and did it. What came about from it came about from it. I’m not trying to put that on anyone else. I’m disappointed in the way it happened and I think the communication could have been better. That’s often the case with them. I wish at least they would have…if you’re going to release me anyway, just have him kick my ass in two minutes and let me go. I don’t understand why there was no match. It’ll never make sense to me. It’s the same thing with him and Mandy. It’s one of the top three or top five storylines of fan investment for the year and you’re just going to put them on separate brands and everyone is supposed to be OK with the fact that Otis is like, ‘Eh, I guess Mandy doesn’t exist anymore.’ No, who is going to forget about Mandy Rose? Now, he’s a heel anyway. You could have just had him turn on her.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)