A recently released WWE star has addressed the issues they had with the character they played on NXT television.
In early May, over a dozen WWE stars were released from their contracts across both the main roster and NXT.
One of the NXT names let go by the company was Karl Fredericks (fka Eddy Thorpe in WWE), who saw his two year spell with the company end at a time when he was regularly featured on WWE’s developmental brand.
Over two months on from his exit, Fredericks appeared on the ‘B4 The Bell Podcast’ and opened up about his NXT character, which leaned into his Native American heritage.
Noting how the character lacked depth, Fredericks said:
“Nearly two years, hey guys, I’m not a real human being. I smudge and dance in the forest and I come in and wrestle. Give me the mic in the ring. Let me talk like a human being.
“The first words out of my mouth, as I’m lying, which I know… it makes me a bad guy but, the first words out of my mouth, ‘Me and my people been through enough’ and then, the next week and this is in those little conversations (in the ring) where it’s really hard to change the context or you know what I mean? Like too much of the words.
“So, for a lot of that run, ‘Me and my people,’ and then, I tended to agree. You have to see the feedback online so it’s like, ‘He’s just b*tching about the same –’ it felt b*tchy, to me, so it’s just like, there was no meat and potatoes to it. In creative talks, there was always the things I wanna do, ideas we had gotten together and a deeper vision for it.
“But it just was always that. It was that only and then capped it off with the ‘greedy white man’ line. So then part of it for me was just like… that point of view or playing that character, doing that stuff… wasn’t for me.”
Fredericks then recalled plans he had for his character to obsessively pursue the NXT North American Championship, tying it into his heritage, something that could have also translated to the main roster and the United States Title.
Fredericks continued:
“We just didn’t get to some cool stuff that we had talked about and I remember coming in with Shawn (Michaels) and talking… especially as a heel, the Native American character, how cool would it be if I — I should be obsessed with the North American Title.
“As far as I’m concerned, that strap’s only been held by immigrants, you know what I mean? And that doesn’t sit right with me. My first four months in the P.C., I’m doing heel promos and I’m talking about resources and helping my people, and I need resources to help them.
“Stuff like gold. You wanna know the awful things you can get away with in pursuit of a resource like gold? What kind of gold do we have in our business? Championship gold. So, you know, I want that one. I want that one, to keep that one and continue climbing like that.
“Or if it was main roster, the U.S. Title, and then even, we had planned some sort of… We started with, you know, Ava’s blowing me off and then we have the moment, the really cool moment that I got with Shawn, him pressing me against the wall and that and we had somewhere in there where I was gonna talk my sh*t and then reference him, ‘If it was up to that cowboy in the back,’ blah, blah, blah.
“Even pitching that to him, if I’m doing this heel thing, why would I not? My cowboy boss. Like some sort of friction with that… It was a lot because also in those little segments, this is the first time any of this stuff is being done, or at least in the modern era and then there’s just a lot of teaching and educating to do at the same time, which can do. It’s somewhat in pro wrestling but it can’t just be like a history, with no one knowing it, and then with no one knowing, it’s hard if you only give ‘em those little things, it ends up being what it was. You get the gist of the character and things like that. I’d like to think that we would have got to that stuff but, like I said, it just wasn’t for me.”
During the appearance Fredericks noted that he was currently on “vacation mode” following his WWE release, but he’s still training and has had some phone calls, but wouldn’t elaborate too much further regarding where he may land next.
We will provide updates on Fredericks’ post WWE future as any news becomes available.
For more WWE headlines check here.
Transcript via Fightful
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