Tyler Breeze Recalls The Struggle To Find His On-Screen Identity In WWE

Although Tyler Breeze would eventually rank among the most memorable characters in the history of NXT, there's no denying it took Breeze some time to find his footing. During a recent appearance on "Agents of Wrestling," Breeze discussed the process of building his character in WWE developmental.

"When I started [in WWE], it was like, 'Alright, you're going to start as Matt Clement until we figure out your name,'" Breeze said. "And then I think I pitched a couple different names. You pitched a couple of first names, a couple of last names, with your favorites at the top."

Breeze then explained that he went through several names before being told by Tom Prichard that he would be going by the name Mike Dalton, which stuck for a number of years. Eventually, Breeze was told that the Dalton character wasn't working, and he was challenged to come up with something new.

"I kind of had to start branching out and thinking about who else I could be, or how I could become marketable," Breeze continued. "I just came up with some characters, and one of them happened to be Tyler Breeze — the Zoolander-esque male model. And then they kind of liked that one, and there was something to it, so then I just worked with a couple people to make it more and more and more, and slowly, over the course of six months, a year, two years, whatever — [it] became what you ended up seeing."

After his WWE release in June 2021, Breeze took a two-year break from wrestling. Just last month, the former "WWE NXT" Tag Team Champion ended his hiatus from wrestling, winning the Next Generation Wrestling: Tennessee Championship.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Agents of Wrestling" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.