westin blake

Prisoner Of Society: Westin Blake Going Back To His Roots, Exploring More Character Work In Post-WWE Run

By Colin Tessier

Westin Blake is out to show a different side and prove himself as guy that can hang in the ring and on the mic.

Westin Blake (aka Wesley Blake) recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about his plans for his wrestling career. Blake spent eight years in WWE before being released in April, but has plans to rebrand himself as he sets out on this journey. Asked about his biggest immediate goal, Blake said he wants to do more character work, something he didn’t get as much of a chance to do in WWE.

“When you get in there, into wrestling, you just kinda want to tell your story and you want to keep growing as a performer and keep evolving along with the times,” he explained, “and I think that’s what I want to continue to keep doing. I did some shooting with some promo-type stuff that I’ve been releasing out on my social media to kind of just get my character and stuff across that I never got to do previously in my career. And what I’m looking forward to in the future is getting to work with so many talented people across the globe.

“There’s so many different companies and there’s so many talented people that I would love to work with and so many wrestling minds in all aspects. I feel like I can bring value to whatever company that I go to. In reality, I would love to work with each and every one of them and kind of get to work with different talents and different crowds and different aspects,” he said, “and really get to grow as a performer and hopefully be in a main event role sometime.”

Blake has been releasing content on social media this month that shows him getting “back to his roots”, and spoke about the inspiration behind the videos. He played a “cowboy” character when he joined NXT, something that does come from his real life, but the focus today is something that’s a little more relatable to the current fan as well as his own experiences.

“I grew up on a horse farm and by no means am I cowboy. My grandfather was an actual real-life cowboy in every word of the sense. So when I grew up on a horse farm, I worked around and with horses and stuff like that. I grew up with horses and that’s what my dad still does to this day with training horses and stuff like that. And so I just wanted to give that,” Blake said, “a little bit of a background on me and where I’ve come from and that’s what that video shows. It kind of shows me going back to my roots kind of to refocus a bit, and just kind of show the different sides.”

Read More: Westin Blake On Potentially Working With (Or Against) Buddy Murphy Again: I Would Jump At It 110%

“When I was with Blake and Murphy, I was more, I had the kind of goofy hair, goofy blond hair with that and I was just kind of more of a flamboyant type character with that. And then with Forgotten Sons, it was very much, like you said, a patriotic—when we first pitched it, it was kind of a Sons of Anarchy kind of brotherhood with Steve Cutler and [Jaxson] Ryker. And so when I pitched this, showing this character, it’s all different levels of that and showing my true self and it’s just something that I’ve kind of been working on.

“I’ve always wanted to call myself a prisoner of society. And the words of that were it’s like you do the right thing and you follow your dreams and you kind of do all that,” Blake explained, “but you just kind of keep coming up short. And it was just something that came to my mind where I feel like people could relate to and people could either share frustrations about it or I can turn it around and I could also show the good out of it as well. And that’s kind of where I want to get character-wise, just kind of where you can be true to yourself in a sense and then also show different levels to where, whether it be wrestling or character-wise as well.”

Despite being part of a successful tag team with Blake & Murphy, the two didn’t get much time on the mic. Later, he was part of the Forgotten Sons stable but that didn’t get very far, in part due to being pulled from TV in response to Jaxson Ryker’s controversial Tweets in support of President Donald Trump. Asked if he’s consciously trying to make the character different than what he’s done before, Blake said the ‘cowboy’ character he came in with was a more gimmicky approach, but this is more true to life and an evolution of the work he’s done before. Blake said that he’s looking forward to telling his story in his own words, something that didn’t really happen in WWE.

“I would—just like what you said, it’s just kind of getting your story out there. When I was with WWE, I was with WWE for eight years, and I never got the opportunity to have the mic, to get a promo. I did very little [speaking] with Murphy and myself. And then we did a little bit more with Forgotten Sons of just backstage and stuff. And so I felt like—which is a huge aspect in wrestling—being able to grab a mic and talking and conveying the story through talking as well. And that was one thing that I felt like I wanted to get the opportunity to do and show that I could do,” he explained, “just show my story and give a little bit of background and let people in on who Westin Blake is and where I come from and see my experiences and how they relate to themselves and how they relate to the audience. And so that is very much that sense of the next couple of promos and stuff and show people like, ‘oh okay, this guy can do it.’

“Same thing with the ring. I very much pride myself on the way, at live events, that I was able to roll with anyone, go with anyone and be able to hang in any type of match they put me in. And come to TV, I just never felt like I got the opportunity to get a 15-to-20 minute segment match or something like that. So yeah, that’s what part of this process is, is kind of showing—I’m not saying I’m starting over after my 90-day compete is over by any means. Because I had a great start with WWE and NXT,” Blake stated, “but now it’s almost time to prove yourself again and show like, ‘OK this guy is worth what he says he is or what he’s being portrayed as.”

Read More: ‘Let’s All Calm Down’: Eddie Kingston Comments On His Post-AEW Dynamite Speech, The Good Nature Of Competition

Colin Tessier
Colin Tessier

Colin Tessier is a lifelong fan of all things Marvel and DC, and he has used this passion to write about them for several years. Likewise, having been a fan of wrestling since he was a kid, he also covers professional wrestling. You can find him on Twitter at @ct_2110.

Share article

TRENDING

Related