Ricochet On Accomplishing Everything On The Indies Before WWE, WWE Being His Ending Point
Having made his pro wrestling debut over 15 years ago, Ricochet is only a rookie in terms of his tenure in WWE. He wrestled for everyone from Evolve to PWG to New Japan to Lucha Underground before joining WWE.
There wasn't really anything left for Ricochet to accomplish on the indie scene which is a big reason why he joined WWE. He joined Lilian Garcia's podcast to talk about how he planned his career in stages and WWE is the last stage.
"Everything that I have done I have kind of done it the way that I planned it? the stages that I have gone and the stages that I have wanted to go to. I wanted to do the indie thing and then I wanted to do the Japan thing and do as much of Japan as I could," said Ricochet. "And when I did the Lucha Underground thing, the way it came across it seemed really exciting so I really wanted to do that. Then as time kept going the things that I wanted to do I kind of already did, so I had gotten everything out of the way.
"Coming here [to the WWE] was kind of the ending point for me, I wanted to do everything I wanted to do before I came here. So, when I saw my friends get called up and signed and became super excited for them, I saw that it was good because it was a way to help make their lives better, so it was nice for me to see them get called up."
Even while Ricochet was wowing crowds all over the globe, WWE was always in the back of his mind. Now that he's reached his end point, he says he needs to set new end points while a WWE Superstar.
"It's always just been a dream of mine since I can remember," Ricochet said of working for WWE. "As I got older and saw that there was more than just WWE, I wanted to explore all of those avenues, but still, WWE was always my dream. Finding out all of these other avenues and to travel the world, just be part of all of the independent scene and the Japan scene, just really get to experience it and get down to the nitty gritty of all of it and experience it in the full way that I can.
"WWE has always been a dream of mine so that is the ending point because if your goal is to get there, and when you get there and then your goals change to something like getting on a pay-per-view or win a match, or whatever. So, when you are here you have to make smaller goals to achieve."
Ricochet made his wrestling debut on his 15th birthday and is now 30 years old. He says the past 15 years have started to catch up to him but the NXT staff is helping him improve his body as he ages.
"There was a time the last couple of months where my knees and my hips and back was just killing me," revealed Ricochet. "I think it was because of the time leading up to me signing with NXT I never really warmed up or stretched, even before matches or workouts. I had just jumped right back into it. It appears that it all just finally caught up with me, but now luckily when I was signed with NXT, [strength & conditioning coach] Sean Hayes had a really good warmup before every workout and he gave us warmups that we can do before matches.
"And then between that I also recently started doing DDP Yoga and I really feel like that has helped my knees, back and hips to really stretch out. So, I try to warm up before matches and stretch before matches, and even work out and stuff. I really think that has helped me get back to, not normal yet, but I am getting there really quickly I feel like."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.