5 WWE backstage stories we learned this week: Brock Lesnar, Vince McMahon, Kane, and more
WWE is set to begin its latest new era over the next week, with RAW having its “season premiere” on Monday and SmackDown moving to FOX on Friday.
On-screen, there is plenty to look forward to from an in-ring perspective in the coming days, including Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio (Universal Championship) and Kofi Kingston vs. Brock Lesnar (WWE Championship), and then all eyes will be on the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view on October 6.
As regular readers of this weekly series know, the behind-the-scenes stories about WWE Superstars are sometimes just as entertaining as the characters that they portray on television.
For example, we all know what the perception of Brock Lesnar is like now at the age of 42, but this week we learned how he was perceived as an up-and-coming 23-year-old in the OVW development system.
To find out all the details behind that story, plus four others, let’s take a look at five of this week’s best backstage anecdotes from the WWE world.
#5 Angelo Dawkins did not believe WWE wanted him
Over the last two months, we have seen The Street Profits’ Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford as in-ring competitors on NXT and as backstage personalities on RAW.
This week, the former NXT Tag Team Champions sat down with Lilian Garcia on the Chasing Glory podcast to give an insight into their WWE careers so far.
One of the most interesting stories came when Dawkins revealed that he could not watch much wrestling growing up because he was discouraged from doing so by his mother.
He then became a successful amateur wrestler, which led to him being spotted at an event by WWE Hall of Famer Gerard Brisco, who was working as a talent scout for NXT at the time.
When Dawkins heard that one of Vince McMahon’s right-hand men wanted to speak with him, he did not think much of it and assumed it might have been a joke.
However, it turned out that Brisco was serious and the two men had a meeting later that day which ultimately kick-started Dawkins’ seven-year association with WWE.