Full WrestleTalk Exclusive Interview: Former WWE Star No Way Jose

Last week, as part of a rather unfortunate cost-cutting measure brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic, WWE made the call to release several in-ring wrestlers, backstage producers, writers, and even a referee who has been with the company since 1989.

One of those released was Raw star and former NXT wrestler No Way Jose. During his three-years in NXT, fans really got invested into his character. However, things didn’t exactly go to plan for Jose on the main roster. Now that he has been released, Jose wants to show a more serious side and is relishing the opportunity to perhaps play a heel and explore more options in terms of his character.

We had the chance to speak to Jose less than a week after his release. During our chat, Jose revealed what it was like to be called up to Raw from NXT, spoke about wanting to show a more serious side to his character, revealed some of the awesome ideas he pitched, went into detail on his true opinions on the conga line and much more.

We have included both the full-length interview in this piece as well as important quotes. If quotes are used, please credit WrestleTalk.com.

We also had the pleasure of interview former WWE stars Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett last week. Make sure you click the hyperlinks to also check out those interviews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFjiXUC1-jA

As many fans won’t have been too familiar with his work on the independent scene, we asked Jose to explain what his character was before signing with WWE in 2015. Here’s what he had to say:

“Before the Indies, actually I went to train with Trevor Lee, now Cameron Grimes… him and Roy Wilkins, Jeff Rudd they all trained me. For a brief moment in time I was a Rose Bud, and that’s how I got noticed. How the tables have turned. I was expecting Carlito comparisons, and then that happened. It was a character, because I am Dominican based, out of the Dominican Republic and it was actually a heel. I was loud mouthed, never shut up, very arrogant, very cocky. I’m a bigger dude. If you don’t realise it, the comment I get a lot is ‘damn you big as hell’, I’m 6ft 3’’ 250lbs for real. When [WWE] put me dancing, I guess it makes me appear smaller.”

He then would go on to explain how he adopted the No Way Jose name, and revealed that he wasn’t and still isn’t the biggest fan of it:

“The name itself, ha. I don’t know how the hell it happened, they were like “what do you think of No Way Jose”, and I was like “no”. I thought it was a catchphrase, and I was like “oh cool”… they saw something in film and somehow it came up… [Matt] Bloom was like “what if you want it as a name?”, and I was like “no way”. Then a writer came up to me and was like “why?”, and I was like “it will pigeon hole me, there is a ceiling”, all the real stuff in terms of business. Nobody goes in there and says they want to be a No Way Jose probably, they want to be, for me it was The Rock when I saw The Rock I wanted to be The Rock… We went into Full Sail and I’m walking in and  you shake everyone’s hand and Triple H is right there talking to Eva Marie or someone, I’m like “hey, sir, how you doing?” And he’s like No Way, what’s going on?”. In my head I’m like “s***, is that a thing?” And he goes “got it approved today, what do you think?” And I said “I love it, let’s go”.”

We then asked Jose about the parts of the gimmick he enjoyed, and he revealed how he loved working with the conga line due to the interactions with fans that came with it, but said he would have liked more serious storylines:

“It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the gimmick, but the name wasn’t my first choice. What ended up happening with it was it became its own thing, it took its own form. What I loved about it was the fan interaction. We could go into the crowd and we literally do conga lines, that’s how it came to be… it was me going out into the people and getting behind me… I never got the opportunity to show a more serious side and have something I could really sink my teeth into.”

Jose then went on to explain some of the awesome ideas he pitched to WWE, including multiple segments with Elias and even a crossover with an NFL star for WrestleMania:

“I always wanted to walk with Elias. I was a party guy right, and I was always wanting to walk with Elias and slowly party with Elias. I would come out there with a drum one day and a guitar singing with him. Just trying to literally walk with him. I remember texting someone and was like what about a 24/7 title, and they were like “no it wouldn’t happen”. A few months later it happened which was great. The same mindset, let’s give everyone who is not doing something, something to do. I actually had an NFL player ready to go for WrestleMania, maybe timings didn’t work out, maybe they didn’t have plans. He was ready and I was ready. I talked to a few of the boys and they were like “if he comes that’s gonna be awesome”, but it never came to be… One week in particular I pitched 13 things based off the show.”

Speaking of awesome ideas he pitched, Jose revealed that he pitched an idea that would have seen him train members of the conga line. He also revealed how Vince McMahon suggested an idea of him turning on the conga line:

“I wish we could have done more. Since we used them for two solid years, we could have done more to give them a different side, like boot camp was something I had like training with them to get them tougher. I had talks with the boss a couple of times and he was like if the turn ever happened, I’d need to like lay them out and show that aggressiveness.I was super excited to get an opportunity to do that. I thought that’s where we were going to end up going… maybe it was a plan down the line but I guess we’ll never know.”

We asked Jose about when he found out he would be called up to the main roster from NXT after three years in developmental:

“Honestly, bro, I felt like I was ready. I felt like my character was more made for this because it’s a bunch of kid interactions. {The post-WrestleMania Raw] was a blast. I remember after Takeover happened, and I still remember what happened… Vince was leaving and I was just watching just to watch. He was leaving and as he was leaving we shook his hand. He shook someone’s hand, it might have been Ricochet and told him “great match” and everything. He shook someone else’s hand and I was like third. He walks away, and turns back to me and goes “see you Monday”. I was like “what the hell”… Triple H does the meeting at the end and afterwards one of the coaches told us to wait. I think it was me, Drew, The IIconics and I think AOP. He told us all to wait behind and then we went into a room. I think it was filmed, but it was like Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Bloom… I was excited as hell.”

Jose then spoke about finding out the conga line would be regular part of his gimmick, as opposed to something that he would just bring out for special matches. He also said while he loved the conga line, it might have been holding him back:

“They wanted the conga line with me. In NXT, I only did the conga line for big events. I was like “alright, whatever. I’ll do the conga line”, and then it stuck. I feel a certain way about the conga line. I love the conga line, I absolutely do, but I think that’s the line that maybe held me back a little bit.”

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