When Brian Pillman Jr. left the family name in the past in order to shoot his shot as a member of the biggest promotion in professional wrestling, it was fair to wonder if the performer now known as Lexis King was making a mistake.

Sure, the “Loose Cannon” still holds a special place in many wrestling fans' hearts, and as a result, his son will earn chance after chance to succeed with promotions around the world, but after failing to latch on with AEW after plenty of early chances with the then-young promotion, would the 30-year-old find more success in WWE?

Well, thus far, the answer has been yes, as King's been utilized on television quite a lot since signing with the promotion and is now firmly a fixture of NXT's upper-mid card after just a few months on the roster.

Stopping by Insight to talk professional wrestling with Chris Van Vliet, King discussed the transition from AEW to WWE and how a seminar by none other than “The Face That Runs the Place,” John Cena, helped him to “get” what NXT is all about.

“He actually came and did a seminar with us at the PC. I thought, ‘Okay, I'll see what's going on.' I'm so glad I went. It was the most enlightening… it wasn't just little questions that people would ask. We were getting into it. We were talking about contract negotiations and all this different stuff. It was amazing, the amount of questions we were able to ask and get answered,” Lesix King said via SE Scoops.

“One of the coolest things he said was, ‘You can't control the booking and who is wearing what belt, but you can be the best version of said character.'”

Has Pillman's character worked in NXT? All things considered, yes, while his fans need to settle on a nickname that isn't incredibly offensive, his schtick is far more defined than what he worked for AEW, which effectively came down to wearing a varsity jacket. If King can maximize what he's give as Cena suggested, then he'll be far better positioned to succeed than at any of the previous spots along his professional wrestling journey.

Lexis King reveals his feelings towards AEW after landing in WWE.

Discussing his decision to leave AEW for NXT when his contract came to an end with Tony Khan's promotion last year, Lexis King explained why he opted to jump to WWE developmental in his sixth year as a professional wrestler and how the choice has paid off immediately and immensely.

“It [his WWE NXT TV debut] was great. I was just sitting in it, and I'm backstage thinking, ‘Is this real?' I spent, and this isn't a knock on anybody, but I spent so many months of my career at the previous company just second-guessing myself. ‘Am I really any good? Am I worth it?' A lot of self-doubt. And just to see how my career has done a total 180 since then [is incredible],” Lexis King said via SE Scoops.

“I went from just sitting in the back and filming a few dark matches in Orlando here and there. Six-minute tag matches, barely getting in the ring and feeling the canvas to now, I'm sitting on a throne, making my entrance. In the biggest wrestling company in the world, they have this confidence in me. And it fuels me, now I have confidence in myself.

“H*ll, they gave me the name King! It doesn't get any better than that. So just to feel that 180 and go out there and perform with a certain level of grit and attitude. You know, I'm going to prove everyone one wrong, everyone who didn't believe in me, It's a dream come true.”

Asked if he harbors any ill-will towards AEW, King said no, as he still values the experience in the promotion even if he didn't wrestle nearly as much as he would have liked.

“There's no ill-will [towards AEW] but it's just sort of that mindset,” King noted. “I put myself in that mindset. Nobody else put me in that. I just put myself in that mindset of ‘What's going on here?' That self-doubt. And I kept griding. Like I said I moved back home. I kept grinding, going to the local [wrestling] school. Trying to find out what makes me tick as a performer. And just the experience living there, the experience I gained traveling with AEW made me the performer I am today.”

What does the future hold for Lexis King? Will he become an NXT Champion and eventually jump to the main roster, where he can shine a la his father? Or will he instead see his run peter out, and have to return to MLW a la his fellow New Hart Foundation member Davey Boy Smith Jr? Fans will have to keep tuning into the promotion to find out.