Former Fred Rosser WWE Pairing Was Inspired By Mike Tyson

When one thinks of Fred Rosser's run with WWE as Darren Young, most think of his Prime Time Players tag team with Titus O'Neil. Thus, it's easy to forget Rosser's latter days in WWE, when WWE legend Bob Backlund served as his life coach.

In an interview with "Under the Ring," the current New Japan Strong Openweight Champion went through the whole process of the idea, including who he mirrored it after.

"Tag teams don't last forever, and I new sooner or later Titus and I would break up," Rosser said. "So you've gotta have ideas. I'd done several autograph signings with Bob Backlund for Special Olympics, Be-A-Star. And every time he does autograph signings, he does them standing up, and so do I. So there was a point when I was doing a signing with him, I'm looking over at Bob, and I said 'Man, he's energetic, I'm energetic. I'd love to [work with him].' At the time, WWE wasn't heavy into managers, but I said to myself 'I'd love to have him as like, not my manager, but something like my life coach.'

"It was really my idea, and I've said it in many interviews, because a lot of guys think that it was just given to me. It was actually my idea. And I wrote it out, I had visuals. I actually kind of mirrored the idea from Mike Tyson and his former trainer, Cus D'Amato, because they're like strange bedfellows. But Mike was very, very locked in to his trainer, Cus D'Amato, so that's what I did. I took the ideas, I proposed them to Vince McMahon."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Under the Ring and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription