Leon Ruff is NXT’s resident underdog currently. Capturing the NXT Championship spontaneously from Johnny Gargano and is now en-route to be a defending champion at NXT TakeOver: WarGames.
Speaking with Metro in the UK, Leon Ruff explained how he wants to inspire kids, much in the same way that Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man, inspired him as a child.
“When I grew up in Detroit, it was a lot of African Americans, a lot of black people. We rarely had white students. I didn’t grow up going to school with white people until I was in seventh grade. There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t know I could do or see or be. Like for Halloween, you can never really be a character because maybe your hair’s not right.”
RELATED: Legado Del Fantasma Attacks Curt Stallion, Leon Ruff Vows Not To Back Down
He would continue on to say that he was very inspired by the movie Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and that he would love to play Miles Morales in a movie one day.
“I remember the scene where Miles jumped off the building, that leap – that’s how I felt,’ he beamed. ‘I’m getting emotional. ‘That’s how I felt when I left my job to come and do wrestling. I felt like I was jumping off the building, and it felt like I was falling but I was flying. ‘The way that made me feel watching that movie, I can only imagine how kids growing up who have all these outlets of diverse characters – I can only imagine what they’ll feel growing up. I’ve always wanted to inspire people, and I wanted to do it through wrestling,’ he insisted. ‘[But] I would definitely love to play Spider-Man!”
WrestleZone will have live coverage of NXT TakeOver: WarGames this Sunday.
