Former WWE star Sidney Akeem (Reginald) recently spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp on a number of topics including his return to NXT as SCRYPTS.
Akeem said, “Of course. So going back to NXT wasn’t my idea, but I was in this process. I knew the 24/7 title stuff was on its way out. I think we wrote it until the wheels for sure fell off. We wrote it for a long time and it was at his, I think one of the highest peaks when we’re doing all of our stuff. I started to figure out what was, what was I gonna do next? And I presented myself, I wanna wrestle in a mask.”
On his plan for the mask gimmick:
“I’m a writer as well and so I write all of my stories and I wrote the story of going under a mask, but it wasn’t as a heel. It was gonna be something super cool; super, almost, basic. It was original talks with Rey Mysterio. I was gonna do something with him. Him and I discussed it and he was completely down. This is way before Judgment Day and all of these different things. But it was something to where, you know, I was gonna get attacked and him and Dom came to my aid, set up a six man and I’m nervous as heck. It’s like my first match with Rey Mysterio, Dominik, all of these different things and he was gonna give me a mask to try to calm my nerves. We win or whatever, I’m gonna give it back. But he said, no, what? You keep it, you deserve it. You earned it or whatever and that was gonna be me in the mask. Flippy, fun, happy guy, whatever. That didn’t work, that didn’t happen. So I was told that I was gonna go back to NXT. All right, sweet. I still want to do the mask stuff and I had like a meeting with some people and just basically talked about who I was and my story and all of these different things, w What I wanted to do, very open, very great. first time dealing with NXT and I’m like, this is pretty amazing. But I said, ‘I want to do the mask,’ and they asked, ‘What do I like to do?’ I talk about poetry and then someone said, ‘I have this idea for Dark Poet. Would you be interested?’ I’m like, ‘Sure.’ I mean, I don’t really turn down anything. I do my job. I am the performer and I know that there’s a hierarchy to things or whatever. So, I do what I’m told, I’m gonna knock it out the park, just like I did the 24/7 stuff, the sommlier stuff or whatever.”
On putting the character together:
“I striped out every time and whatnot and I never felt comfortable because, one thing that Shawn told me after I told him my story, he heard my story for the first time, he was like, ‘Oh, shit. He didn’t say, well shit, but he said, good luck with making these people try to hate you.’ For one, I have a very unique skill set and my story is incredible. It’s one of the reasons they hired me, but we went away from all of that. I had to be this dark poet. So all of the poems and things I was writing and then not knowing when I was gonna debut, had a guy make my gear and he did a horrible job. My mask, horrible job. I mean, this was a first for me. I had suits, I have a tailor. So I get all my suits custom. I didn’t have a gear guy. So I found a guy. He threw something together quickly. Before the match, earlier that day, it ripped. So I had to get it stitched. So my gear was bad, my mask was bad. And I’m just like, oh man, I feel so out of whack with this character and it was a huge fail.”
On the creation of OTM:
“We started to pitch some things with Axiom and I, and it was great, very, very great. That story between us didn’t develop quite like we wanted it to, ‘cause just time and getting rushed and whatnot. So that was rushed, but then the mask came off and I thought we were going to do something that we didn’t do anything. I said, ‘Man, this sucks.’ So I did my part. I talked to my guys. I pitched the idea of doing something that was very personal to me. This is the first time that I was going to use my real story and instead of writing it up, I filmed it. I filmed it and I put like the Easter eggs in the back of the two guys that I wanted to use, which were Bronco and Lucien. We filmed this vignette that the public didn’t see it, but I showed it to some creative people and they said, ‘I love this. It’s exactly what we envisioned for you. It’s like a Hurt Business, a Nation of Domination type of faction, and whatnot. After the pay-per-view, we’re gonna move forward with this.’ What was that next week? They planted the Easter eggs on this faction or what not? I’m like, ‘Oh heck yeah, we’re moving forward right where we wanna be.’ For the majority of that, and I’m writing all of these promos and filming these vignettes and sending it to them, sending it to them, and they were so on board with it. I don’t know where along the line, where it went from what I originally wrote to how OTM was presented because it went from like a very strong faction to almost a knockoff Cryme Tyme, and I didn’t write that, you know? That wasn’t my vision for it, but that’s how it turned out.”
You can check out Akeem’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
