With the 2023 WWE Draft officially passed, the fine folks in WWE's digital content department decided to catch up with the newly elevated members of the SmackDown roster who heard their names called following successful runs in NXT, including Cameron Grimes, who secured a statement victory over Baron Corbin in seven or so seconds.
Asked how it feels to finally make it to SmackDown, Grimes was “over the moon” to see years of his hard work justified.
“Hearing Teddy Long say that the final pick to Smackdown is gonna go to the moon, immediately, like, tears just flew out of my eyes because 15 years I’ve been grinding, working hard for this moment, and to hear that now, it fired me up,” Grimes said. “For the past few months I haven’t been on NXT. I’ve been getting myself ready, because I knew that this moment was gonna come, just a matter of when.”
Cutting back to Grimes at the end of the video, presumably after securing the aforementioned win over Corbin, the GameStop investor celebrated his debut and the reaction he received from the crowd.
“Sitting here shocked, because my first match on SmackDown just ended, and what could possibly be record time, I’m not even quite sure,” Grimes said. “Any time that you get to walk out that curtain and see that crowd and that atmosphere as a fan that’s watched wrestling his entire life and has felt those moments of seeing your favorite come out and get that reaction from the people. It’s my first day here, but there was still some people there that knew who Cameron Grimes was, and knew that they wanted to go to the moon. I’ve said it before, you know, my father is my biggest fan, and, he’s not able to be here and be in person, but he’s watching down, and I know that he saw this moment, and he was smiling ear to ear.”
Right now, Grimes is a fresh face on SmackDown; he wasn't used on NXT at all in 2023 as his eventual main roster call-up was expected, and other than that match and a few segments backstage, he's still an unknown commodity to the vast majority of the SmackDown audience. Fortunately, if his win over Corbin is of any indication, it would appear Paul “Triple H” Levesque and company have plenty of plans for Grimes moving forward, which means he could become a household name to fans of the WWE Universe in no time at all. #ToTheMoon!
Which #WWENXT Superstar drafted to #SmackDown has the brightest future on the blue brand? pic.twitter.com/9f9grx2nUJ
— WWE (@WWE) May 17, 2023
Ted DiBiase is happy to see Cameron Grimes get his chance to shine.
Stopping by For the Love of Wrestling to talk about his professional wrestling career, Ted DiBiase turned his attention to his run in NXT, where, for a very fun period in 2021, he was working a program with LA Knight and Cameron Grimes surrounding the physical manifestation of his wrestling career, the Million Dollar Championship.
“I had a blast (in my stint with NXT). I’m on what they call a Legends contract. So I make myself available to them, and I’m at their disposal if they should happen to call me any time, and it’s rare,” DiBiase said via Wrestle Talk.
“So that was one of those rare times when they called me, and they said, ‘Look, we’ve got one of our young guys here. His name is Cameron Grimes, who legitimately invested in the stock market and hit big and overnight, you know, got a whole lot of money, and so we’ve come up with this storyline where we’re gonna have him start acting like you’ and then have me come along, for example, he’s in a jewelry store, and he’s buying a watch, and so he holds up this beautiful gold Rolex, it’s diamond-studded and everything.”
After sharing a clip with the crowd, DiBiase went back in on his time in NXT – putting Knight and Grimes over in the process.
“Anyway, we just had fun with it for a while, and it actually went a little longer than they anticipated that it was gonna go because it basically got over so well,” DiBiase added.
“But yeah, when LA Knight got involved, I saw the skill that he had as well. The focus first was on Cameron Grimes, but I saw the talent in L.A. Knight, and I mentioned that to a couple of people, and they said, ‘Yeah, we know,’ and this has helped bring that out in him too, and obviously, he’s moved on up.”
Can Grimes and Knight become DiBiase-level stars on the main roster? Only time will tell, but after matching wits with the WWE Hall of Famer for months back in 2021, it's clear the duo are both up for the challenge.
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