"True life" helped uniquely "outlandish" character stand out in WWE, according to 29-year-old star
WWE SmackDown received a new superstar in the form of Cameron Grimes in the 2023 Draft. The Carolina Caveman has a unique on-screen character, and he recently opened up about its roots.
Grimes competed on NXT for several years and won the brand's North American and Million Dollar Championships. After several high-profile rivalries, Grimes was moved to SmackDown during this year’s draft.
Cameron Grimes has already made a mark by embarrassing Baron Corbin on the Blue brand. The Carolina Caveman has been building a fanbase over the past few weeks, and fans are getting behind his character.
While it looks like he has a solid on-screen character, the WWE Superstar has revealed that he is more or less playing himself. Speaking to Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Grimes explained the story behind his character.
"I think there’s a lot of my current, true life in the character, it really hasn’t changed much, you know what I mean?" Grimes said. "It’s just, like, a hard-working country boy that kind of got lucky and struck it rich, and now he’s kind of taking advantage of that. Ultimately my dream was to always be in the WWE so, you know what I mean, I think that’s very near and dear to who Trevor Cadell is, or Cameron Grimes is, you know what I mean? I think it’s pretty hands-on, I don’t know."
The Richest Man in WWE further revealed that he focused on building himself around the serious characters who became popular in NXT. Stars like Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampa, Kieth Lee, and Dominik Dijakovic played very serious roles on-screen. He tried to be different from them while ensuring he brought his unique self in front of fans every week.
"Right, I feel like initially, when Cameron Grimes kind of became a thing, I had to be kind of over the top and kind of outlandish like that because at the time, if you were watching the NXT brand, it was at the time when everybody was just so skillful and good at everything that they did," Grimes said. "So there wasn’t a lot of characters that were over the top, or raising their voice, or being outlandish, if you will, so I feel like, at that time, Cameron Grimes really needed to do that to stand out amongst the current roster that we had at the time." [H/T Clutchpoints]
Next stop: to the moon! Let’s gooo Cameron Grimes!! #Smackdown https://t.co/d8TVk2zdUO
Cameron Grimes has the potential to make it big in the company, as he’s a great technical wrestler. WWE could give him some good bookings and even allow him to win the United States Championship soon to get a head start after working hard in NXT for years.
Cameron Grimes made a lot of money on the stock market, according to a WWE legend
The Technical Savage had a solid gimmick on the developmental brand, which was tweaked once he returned from a hiatus in February 2021 to rebrand himself as The Richet Man in WWE. Grimes had a great rivalry with LA Knight soon after, which featured Ted DiBiase Sr. and the Million Dollar Championship.
Speaking on Everybody’s Got A Pod, DiBiase Sr. revealed that Grimes made much money through investing.
"They had me go down to NXT and do that thing with Cameron Grimes because apparently Cameron had legitimately made a lot of money in the stock market, because he follows the stock market. He legit made a bunch of money, so they said, 'Man, well, let's have a little story here,'" the legend said.
.@CGrimesWWE was just reminded that everybody has a price for @MDMTedDiBiase! #WWENXT https://t.co/ekWTUMlsWl
WWE decided to use the real-life story of The Carolina Caveman, making it big in his on-screen storyline to get him over. It worked well for the superstar and the creative team.
Do you think Cameron Grimes should get a massive push in WWE soon? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.