ESPN.com‘s Andrew Feldman has a new article looking at the development of two of NXT’s emerging stars, Otis Dozovic and Aleister Black. You can read a few excerpt quotes below from Triple H and William Regal:
William Regal comments on how WWE came in contact with Otis Dozovic:
“Jerry Brisco, who is a WWE Hall of Famer, goes out and scouts all of the amateur wrestling. He brought [Otis] to our attention and said whenever he went to a meet, whenever Otis was on the mat, there will be 12,000 people in an arena. There’s several matches going on at one time in different parts of the mat in the arenas, and he said, ‘I always knew he was coming on because everybody, didn’t matter who it was … even if it was some really major contest, would stop watching that and look to where [Dozovic] was.’ He said, ‘You just knew he was in the building, because you can’t take your eyes off him.'”
Regal comments on Dozovic’s look and potential:
“We got him to the Performance Center and he was everything you could ever wish for. He’s got a great look, he’s an incredible athlete and he’s just bursting with charisma. He doesn’t have to put any of it on, it’s just the way he is. When you find somebody that everything they do is just naturally good, it’s a winner straight away.”
Regal comments on Aleister Black:
“You see the ones with the real passion and desire. So I’ve just kept a tab on him for years, the he started to really come into his own the last few years. His name was getting out there, and he was coming to America quite a bit and doing independent shows. We hooked up and I just said, ‘Whenever you’re ready, give me a call,’ that kind of thing. The next thing, he’s giving me a call. He was at a tryout, Triple H has seen him and … yeah, he’s definitely got something that we’re looking for.”
“We look for a lot of things, but the number one thing that we look for — and if I suggest anybody to Paul, he will always say it — ‘Do they actually look like they can beat somebody up?’ Because the key thing to what we do, and there’s a lot of wrestlers out there, unfortunately, who will get offended by this, but they just don’t look like they can do anything physical to anybody. Some of that just comes with time. Over time, your face hardens up and you just look more like a fighter. Aleister just fits that bill because that’s what he is. He is a kickboxer, and he’s been through the wars a bit. You can just see life in his face.”
