Sw3rve The Realest Recalls Talk With Top WWE Star After B-Fab's Release
Sw3rve The Realest recently spoke with with WrestleTalk about a variety of pro wrestling topics.
Sw3rve The Realest's 90-day non-compete is up, and he's officially free to wrestle for any promotion. When asked what his plans are now that he's free, Sw3rve made it clear he's "weighing his options".
"I'm weighing my options right now. I made such a good income with WWE at the time, so I'm looking for what can ultimately match that, but if it doesn't match it, it needs to offer other opportunities for the other outside ventures that I have in this world, like with my music, with my podcast thing, venturing out, going over to LA all the time and overseas. As a father, I've still got to venture over to see my children, so I wanna weigh my options with the best place that can really accommodate those things."
Before Sw3rve The Realest's call-up to WWE SmackDown, he was a mainstay in NXT. Recently, NXT's undergone many changes. According to Sw3rve, the shift from NXT to NXT 2.0 was just as abrupt to the talent as it was to viewers.
"We started seeing the higher-ups come down more. We were seeing the guys in suits a lot more," recalled Sw3rve. "Then the coaches started wearing suits instead of track jackets. They were asking certain things of us this week that they were, like, totally against the week before and the month before. It was a drastic change. Then you see a focus shifting to different types of talent.
"The benefit was a lot of the guys that were just being stored down there besides the big athletes that were coming in from not the pro wrestling world — that wasn't their foundation — those guys were getting on TV, getting opportunities, but it was also kind of a negative because you were seeing them learn on TV. I don't think a fanbase wants to see guys learn on television. They want to see stars."
Sw3rve and Hit Row were cruising in NXT, but all momentum came to a screeching halt after their main roster callup. B-Fab's release was a detrimental blow to the group, and they never quite recovered. Unfortunately, the remaining members of the group, including Sw3rve The Realest, were released shortly thereafter.
"As far as the act of Hit Row, it kind of lost all the soul to it. The heart was gone. You took the heart [B-Fab] out of us. Without the heart, everything else kind of falls apart a little bit more. They also didn't give us the direction or a good enough amount of time to find our next heartbeat and get in the rhythm with everything. So it kinda just was like, 'Let's just do what they want and see how long we can go with this before they make their next decision and move, and we can only adapt from there'."
In regards to stars, Sw3rve says it was Roman Reigns who pulled him aside after B-Fab's release. The Tribal Chief acknowledged the gravity of the loss to the fledgling group Hit Row.
"I remember Roman Reigns talking to me about that. He hit me up in the hallway. He was like, 'Man, I'm sorry about what happened. Y'all losing the girl in your group, man. That's heavy'. And I was like, 'Yeah man, we just gotta find ways to adapt and overcome. He's like, 'That's all you can do really'."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit WrestleTalk with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.