‘I Walked In, Got A Job’: Former WWE Star Recalls Unplanned Contract Signing

WWE

A former WWE star wasn’t expecting to be signed by the company, but that’s what seemingly happened almost two decades ago.

Signed to a developmental contract in 2008, Michael Tarver would debut as Tyrone Jones before adopting the name he would be known as for the rest of his WWE run.

Speaking on The F Y’all Podcast, Tarver revealed that a contract wasn’t what he expected when he first rocked up at a WWE SmackDown taping, saying:

“I walked into an arena in Rochester, New York, for a WWE SmackDown taping that I was not booked for, and they never even knew who I was. I walked in, got a job. Yeah, it’s crazy. I walked in, and it was God, it was meant to be.

“Walked in, did a trial and they offered me a contract, and I wasn’t even booked.

“My first week on the job, I was in the main event of WrestleMania 24. The bar was set high for my expectations by then. I mean, I walked in and just got hired and then flew out to Tampa my first week on the job in the main event of WrestleMania. It’s like, who starts a career like that? I was a part of Floyd Mayweather’s entourage for his match with the Big Show.

“Early on they had his real-life entourage and they had his real-life security too. The problem was the entourage didn’t understand pro wrestling. So they were literally fighting wrestlers.

“So, when I got hired they were like, ‘Alright, nobody knows your face, you guys are new, me and three other fellas, you’re going to be his entourage and no one’s going to know any different because they’ve never seen you on television, they don’t know you’re our talent. I was like, ‘That’s brilliant let’s do it.’ And spent the whole weekend with Floyd and his manager his host, limos, it was crazy man. They got king treatment. When the other wrestlers saw that they were like, ‘Who are these dudes?’ I knew I had to once I started in developmental, officially after WrestleMania I knew I had to come in hot, and I did.”

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Tarver would go on to compete in the first season of NXT, being mentored by Carlito, heading to WWE Raw after the finale to interfere in the CM Punk vs. John Cena match and becoming part of The Nexus, with other rookies.

A legitimate groin injury would see Tarver sidelined in October 2010, being kicked out of The Nexus as a storyline reason for his absence, with a return the following year being short-lived ahead of his June release.

The Nexus Burned Bright, Until It Burnt Out

Brought over from NXT, eight rookies formed The Nexus, with Wade Barrett as their leader, causing havoc on WWE programming from June 2010, with a high profile John Cena feud coming to a head at that year’s TLC: Tables Ladders & Chairs.

Reborn in January 2011, The New Nexus would be led by CM Punk, with Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel defecting to join The Corre, a faction that would dissolve in June of that year.

The sheer popularity of CM Punk could arguably be seen as a reason why The New Nexus wasn’t able to maintain its momentum, especially in a year that would see the star deliver the infamous ‘pipe bomb’ promo, going on to win the WWE Championship and walk away with it.

With diminishing numbers towards the end of its existence, The Nexus would fizzle out, with only David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty under the name until they lost the WWE Tag Team Championship in August 2011, although ‘broad strokes‘ of plans have previously been revealed.

Unlike The Hurt Business, which reformed as The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, there has been little sustained interest in a return for The Nexus outside of the occasional reference on social media.

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• contract
• wwe
• nexus
• michael tarver

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