WWE NXT Star Oba Femi Says He Took To Wrestling Fast

Oba Femi initially signed on to WWE in December 2021 as a part of the NIL (Next In Line) program, which acts as a pipeline between collegiate athletes and WWE. Femi, a former University of Alabama Track & Field star, came into the company with zero wrestling experience. Luckily for him, though, he seemed to pick up on it pretty rapidly.

"I find myself to be quite adaptable to everything," Femi told "The Ringer Wrestling Show." Regardless of what it is, everything I've ever done, I always find that it is for me. For wrestling, it clicked way before I was even on TV. It's always one of these things that I just know. I know what I'm capable of as a human being, and I know how fast I pick up things and how I learn. I'm like, okay, I can definitely do this. This was like maybe two months in.

"Everyone has that moment of like, okay, I'm coming into this new place, it's the [WWE] PC, they're going to teach me how to wrestle and all these things. Everyone's trying to figure out where their place is. I would say I found my place in wrestling pretty easily and very fast."

Femi's first pro wrestling match took place in November 2022. Over the next year, he competed in various bouts across "WWE NXT Level Up" and "NXT" live events before making his fitting breakout in the "NXT" Men's Breakout Tournament on television. Femi later won this tournament and opted to cash-in his guaranteed title shot on the NXT North American Champion Dragon Lee. This ultimately set the stage for Femi's subsequent and history-making reign as champion, which spanned 273 days.

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