Before Trick Williams was Trick Williams, he was Matrick Belton, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound wide receiver from South Carolina who wanted nothing more than to continue his football playing career after graduation.

Though his attempts to make it as a pro clearly didn't work out, as the native of Columbia, South Carolina, never even made it into a proper training camp in the NFL, his agent's suggestion to try out for the XFL ultimately led to a tryout with WWE and the rest, as they say, is history, as he explained to Booker T in a special 5 Minutes of Fame segment on his Hall of Fame podcast.

“Growing up, I did watch wrestling. This is around your day, Book. My first favorite wrestler was ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. I opened a can of whoop-a** at three years old. My mama told me like, ‘Hey, we gotta cut back with the wrestling a little bit. I got in trouble, you know what I mean? Then I stopped watching wrestling for a little bit, and I kind of focused on football. But I knew what was going on. I knew the next generation past the Attitude Era. I watched Booker, and I saw John Cena, Randy Orton, these guys. But I wasn’t all the way into wrestling. I was fully involved with football. After college, I had a minicamp tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles, and I got cut. Then, from there, I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I was still trying to play football,” Trick Williams told Booker T via Ringside News.

“I had an agent at the time. He was trying to sign me up for the XFL. The XFL was owned by Vince McMahon. So I filled out this questionnaire for the XFL, and then the next day, WWE reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, if you’re interested, we want to bring you in for a tryout.’ Just like you, I never once really thought about wrestling myself. Where I’m from, I don’t know any professional wrestlers. I didn’t know any schools at this point in time. I didn’t know how you even get into it. But I did go to the tryout, and I thought, ‘Man, I think can do this. I think I can do this. I think I’m actually made to do this right here.’ They didn’t sign me right away, so I had to pursue it. I had up my mind. I said, ‘I’m not a football player anymore. In a wrestler.’ So since then, it’s been history.”

Gosh, if it wasn't for the suggestion of that fateful agent, what would NXT look like right now? Would Carmelo Hayes have still become one of the biggest stars around? And who would be wrestling Dominik Mysterio at No Mercy this weekend? Fortunately, fans don't have to imagine such a horrible universe, as this is Trick Willie's world, and if he wins at No Mercy, we'll all be living in it.

Booker T is a huge fan of Trick Williams.

Speaking of Booker T and Trick Williams, the former had very high praise for the latter on his Hall of Fame podcast, complementing his look, his athleticism, and his connection with Carmelo Hayes. Though only time will tell what the future holds for Trick Willie as a singles star, Booker T is excited to go on the journey just like the rest of the WWE Universe will too.

“Yeah, of course, you can only sit in the background. So. So long. Somebody like Trick Williams, you can look at him and say he pretty much talks about that box as far as guys checking off those boxes. And you look at him, and he’s, you know, six foot plus, he’s 230 plus, he’s athletic. He can talk. He’s a handsome dude. No, no, seriously. So straight out, straight out of central casting. You know, So, he’s perfect, you know, for the job as for a guy you want to groom to be put in a particular position,” Booker T said in late August via Wrestling Headlines.

“But I also like him riding in that passenger seat, watching how everything works simultaneously because this dude’s green. He just started his journey. And Carmelo is a guy that’s, you know, he’s been out there on the Indies working, whatnot, whatnot. So I like, you know, there again that pairing. But it is time for him to step out and do his own thing. And, you know, let’s go out here and talk about what we talk about all the time checks and championships, man, to get the reviews and titles, you have to have to up your game. You have to have a playbook. You got to go out there and be able to make the I was, like I said, at a Comic-Con over this weekend, and it was so awesome because I stood up for two days straight. The fans came through, and every osne of them had a story to tell because they felt a certain way watching those shows, you know, to me stand what that means, making those fans think something. But Trick Williams is the guy I got high praise and much hope for. So we’re going to see how this kid plays out.”

With Mustafa Ali officially released from WWE, Shawn Michaels' plans for the NXT North American Championship were likely thrown out the window heading into No Mercy. While the initial plan may not have been to give Williams a title shot at this point of the game, if the goal was to transition Mysterio out of being a champion heading into October, pulling that trigger in Bakersfield would certainly open up a wealth of different opportunities for NXT, especially if Hayes gets jealous that he isn't the only champ in his group.