Though Cameron Grimes has only been a member of the WWE main roster for about a month, joining SmackDown with the final televised pick in the 2023 WWE Draft, fans of the Blue Brand have already begun to fall in love with the “The Carolina Caveman” for his quirky personality, his Cave In finisher, and his desire to embarrass Baron Corbin whenever possible.

And yet, in the humble opinion of the kid from Cameron, North Carolina, he isn't playing some character designed to get him over with a notoriously fickle fanbase; no, as he pointed out to Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Grimes is more or less just playing himself on screen every Friday night.

“I think there’s a lot of my current, true life in the character, it really hasn’t changed much, you know what I mean?” Grimes said. “It’s just, like, a hard-working country boy that kind of got lucky and struck it rich, and now he’s kind of taking advantage of that. Ultimately my dream was to always be in the WWE so, you know what I mean, I think that’s very near and dear to who Trevor Cadell is, or Cameron Grimes is, you know what I mean? I think it’s pretty hands-on, I don’t know.”

Noting that Grimes' current character feels a lot more grounded than the “Trevor Lee” he used on the indies, the Gamestop investor noted that that's by design, as he wanted to be over the top to stand out from the more serious characters popular in NXT during the era he came up in but still serious in relations to some of the schtick he pulled on the indies.

“Right, I feel like initially, when Cameron Grimes kind of became a thing, I had to be kind of over the top and kind of outlandish like that because at the time, if you were watching the NXT brand, it was at the time when everybody was just so skillful and good at everything that they did,” Grimes said. “So there wasn’t a lot of characters that were over the top, or raising their voice, or being outlandish, if you will, so I feel like, at that time, Cameron Grimes really needed to do that to stand out amongst the current roster that we had at the time.”

Though Grimes hasn't really been able to showcase too much of his character on SmackDown just yet, it's a testament to his hard work that fans have gotten behind him already, as his current trajectory is headed to the moo… well, you know.

Cameron Grimes explains why it took so long for his SmackDown debut.

Elsewhere in his appearance on Out of Character, Grimes was asked about his lengthy time off of television between his final match on NXT and his first appearance on SmackDown after the WWE Draft. Was this by design, or did Grimes sort of just fall through the cracks?

Fortunately for Grimes, he said it was firmly the former.

“Yeah, 100%. If you’ve watched our product in the past year, it’s incredible. It’s on top of its game,” Grimes said via Fightful. “My last NXT match was in November. Around that time, we’re gearing up to go to the Royal Rumble, we’re gearing up to go to WrestleMania. Like I said, if you watched our product that whole stint going into the Rumble and going into WrestleMania, there has been incredible segments that’s been happening on television. I think I would be insane to say like, ‘You know what, let’s cut five minutes from this Bloodline segment to establish Cameron Grimes right here.’ I feel like it was all timing. I definitely took that down period of time and got in the best shape of my life. I’ve taken advantage of the PC. They have everything. If you’ve ever watched Rocky, like the scene where Drago is in the gym and he’s got all the equipment hooked up to him and the breathing tubes, that’s what they’re doing at the PC now. So I’ve just been completely taking advantage of that and getting ready because I knew that I am at the pinnacle now. I am at the top. There is no higher. You saw me at the bottom, in the super indies. There is no higher. I cannot go any higher now. So the only thing I can do now is stay here and try to make the most out of it.”

Asked how he felt about his first match on the main roster, Grimes noted just how special the moment was for his career, even though he didn't have to do much work.

“I’m a big cryer. I’m not afraid to cry. I’m very passionate,” Grimes said. “So the whole day leading up was pretty bad. Luckily my debut on SmackDown was pretty easy, so I didn’t have to get too worked up over it. But definitely the whole day, just leading up to it, oh yeah, the tears were coming.”

What does the future hold for Grimes? Will he get the sort of push that makes him a certified WWE stalwart for years to come, or will his push end up like Gamestop's stock, up, up, and then crashed back to earth with nothing to show for it but a few memories? Fans will have to keep tuning into SmackDown to find out.