Tyler Breeze’s transformation from Mike Dalton into Tyler Breeze apparently did more than give him a new character. According to Breeze, it helped save his WWE job while ESPN cameras were unknowingly documenting what was originally supposed to end with him getting fired.
While speaking on the Certified Mark Show, Breeze looked back at ESPN’s E60 project surrounding WWE developmental. A group of wrestlers were selected for the feature and given cameras to document their everyday lives, which naturally sounded like a pretty big opportunity at the time.
“They come in and they pitch Triple H. I think they called us into a room. There was like eight of us and they go, ‘All right, ESPN’s doing a special on everybody.’ They said, ‘We chose you eight for a reason.’”
The wrestlers were told to film themselves and give ESPN a look at their lives inside WWE developmental. What Breeze didn’t know was that the documentary was apparently being built around very different outcomes for the wrestlers involved.
“So, they gave us cameras. They said, ‘Follow yourselves around. Show us what you’re doing. Show us your day-to-day,’ blah, blah, blah. ‘It’s a whole thing. It’s going to air on ESPN.’ And we went, ‘This is awesome.’”
That happened to come at a pretty important moment in Breeze’s career. While ESPN was following him, Mike Dalton was disappearing and the Tyler Breeze character was being created.
“So, we’re filming this whole ESPN thing. In this process, I’m Mike Dalton turning into Tyler Breeze.”
ESPN was even there when the new character made his debut. The cameras captured Breeze’s transformation and the reaction to it without him knowing just how much his WWE future was apparently riding on whether the character worked.
“During this time for the E60 thing, they film my debut as a Tyler Breeze. They film all this stuff. They film the reactions, whatever.”
Breeze says he didn’t learn what WWE originally had planned until the documentary was getting ready to air. During one of NXT’s post-show meetings, Triple H brought up E60 and told the developmental roster that things were supposed to end very differently.
“And he goes, ‘There’s E60 stuff coming up that’s about to air.’ And he goes, ‘The way this was supposed to go was very different.’”
According to Breeze’s recollection, the concept was supposed to show the different directions a developmental wrestler’s career could go. Two wrestlers would make it and get called up, another group would remain in developmental with uncertain futures, while two others would be fired.
Breeze believes Corey Graves and Xavier Woods were initially supposed to represent the successful side, although he wasn’t completely certain about those details. Graves’ injury apparently changed things along the way.
“There was supposed to be two guys who made it. So two guys were going to get called up, which I think was going to be, I think it was going to be Graves and Woods. And then Graves ended up getting hurt, I think, in the middle of it. So, it ended up being Leo Kruger and Woods. Two guys that were kind of like, we don’t know what happens to them and they stay in FCW. And then two guys who get fired.”
Then Triple H revealed who those final two wrestlers were originally supposed to be. According to Breeze, WWE had planned on firing both him and Big Cass.
“And as we’re sitting there, he goes, ‘Tyler Breeze was supposed to be one of them.’ And Big Cass, who had just started going with Enzo as well, was supposed to be the other one.”
Neither man apparently had any idea. Breeze remembered looking over at Cass as they realized the ESPN documentary they had happily participated in was supposedly meant to end with both of them losing their jobs.
“And so, meanwhile, me and Big Cass look at each other like, ‘What?’ Like, all that was so we could get fired at the end. Like, nobody told us this at all.”
Instead, both wrestlers managed to change their trajectories while the project was unfolding. Cass found something with Enzo Amore, while Breeze’s new character caught on enough to pull him off the firing list.
“And we just happened to pull ourselves out and come up with Big Cass and Tyler Breeze. And so that was how we found out.”
For Breeze, it was apparently another extremely close call. He says creating Tyler Breeze saved his job for what was already the third time.
“But that again, with all this stuff happening at the same time, is what pulled us off that firing list again, me for the third time. That’s kind of how it went.”
When the interviewer pointed out how cruel it sounded to have ESPN documenting their lives when the intended ending was apparently their releases, Breeze couldn’t exactly disagree. He was mostly relieved that he happened to find the character that changed the ending before WWE could get there.
“You would think, right? You would think. Again, as I’m finding this out in front of, you know, a hundred other people, going, ‘Good thing I came up with that.’”
Instead of E60 documenting the end of Breeze’s WWE run, the cameras ended up capturing the creation of the character that helped save it. Big Cass managed to turn things around at the same time, leaving WWE without the two releases that Breeze says were originally supposed to complete the story.
What do you think about Tyler Breeze and Big Cass apparently being marked for release before both managed to save their WWE careers? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
