Tate Wilder Landed On WWE’s Radar After Breaking Multiple Face Masks In College Football
Tate Wilder had a unique way of getting on WWE’s radar.
Before coming to NXT, Wilder (real name Case Hatch) played football for four years at Arizona State. Despite frequently switching positions, he managed to play in 10+ games for three out of his four seasons.
Speaking with All City Wrestling for a new interview, Wilder said that he was invited to WrestleMania 38 after going viral for breaking multiple facemasks.
“My junior year, I played football at ASU. I had this story come out on like Barstool Sports and I think ESPN might’ve ran with it a little bit, where I broke three face masks in three consecutive games. Someone from WWE saw that clip and it got sent up to higher ups. They invited me out to a WrestleMania in Texas. Again, this is my first involvement with WWE. I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s go check it out. Free trip to Texas, sounds good.’ We go out there and they sign me to a NIL contract. I was like, ‘Man, this is insane. Does it fit my lifestyle? Who knows, we’ll find out.’ So, I just kept going with football and when the dream of playing in the league came to an end, WWE reached out and invited me to come to a NIL tryout almost. It wasn’t necessarily like a specific tryout, but it was just the NIL class I was with coming in and checking it out. They ended up offering me an opportunity to sign with NXT and it’s just been rock and roll since.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tate Wilder talked about Myles Borne taking him under his wing. Check out his full comments by clicking here.
Check out the current lineup for Tuesday’s episode of NXT by clicking here. Fightful will have full coverage of the show as it airs.
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