John Cena questioned this WWE star about his gimmick.
Speaking on SHAK Wrestling, SmackDown’s Kit Wilson explained that Pretty Deadly’s on-screen identity isn’t just about being flashy and close friends, but has a deeper, planned backstory that was never fully used on TV.
He recalls a time in NXT when John Cena visited the Performance Center and spent time with them, questioning them directly about who their characters really were.
“I think the Pretty Deadly characters in the broad strokes of things was just their friendship and their obnoxious colourfulness, but we had a lot of backstory. And to tell you a little story to show that is one day in the PC when we were just kind of starting out in NXT, John Cena came to visit and give a talk.
“I believe Matt Bloom told John Cena that he wanted to have a few words with the Pretty Deadly boys. So John grabbed us and for about an hour and a half we talked in a room and he kind of gave us advice but also kind of quizzed us. I felt like he made us work for it.
“And he asked what was the Pretty Deadly backstory, he said ‘who are you guys,’ he said ‘who are you,’ and he stopped talking. So we went in big and we told him all about our backstory because we have a backstory and we had figured out the backstory for a TV presentation,” Wilson said.
Kit Wilson says current gimmick reflects parts of his real personality
Wilson said Pretty Deadly always built layered background ideas for their characters in case different directions were needed on television. He added that some of those unused character elements now align with his current direction and even reflect parts of his real personality, making them more relevant today.
“It had things like toxic masculinity. I won’t openly admit it now, but we’ve talked sometimes how certain characters that are obnoxiously loud and wearing certain colours might be doing it out of a certain level of insecurity, maybe they’re peacocking.
“But I think the fun of it is you never know which direction you’re gonna end up on TV, so we have a lot of back pocket things. And it just so happens, the beauty of it going into a solo career for now, that toxic masculinity fit everything that’s going on right now.
“That was a part of the Pretty Deadly character but it just never got explored and now I get to explore it and it just happens also to be very true to life to who I am and a big part of my personality on screen and off screen.”
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