WWE held its latest tryout during WrestleMania week, which was exclusive to current and recently graduated college athletes.
Roman Macek, an offensive lineman from Duquesne who has a year left of eligibility and is a first-year law student, was part of the tryout.
Appearing on Breakfast With Benz, Roman detailed his experience at the tryout.
Roman noted that he was contacted by WWE on Instagram for the three-day tryout.
Speaking about the training, he said, "The first session we had, was more getting physicals, we had lunch, we had promo class. We were brought in by executives who worked on the promo side, the writers and stuff like that, and taught how to cut a promo and use your words to tell a story and that a match is a match, but a promo is also a match and they are equal in that part. We also had performance testing where we were throwing medicine balls overhead to see how far we could do that. Vertical, broad jumps, and little drills to gauge athletic abilities to see how you move. I think they wanted to see if anyone was able to move with ease. We're all athletes, so I don't think anybody had a problem with that stuff. Then we got into the nitty gritty and wrestling aspect, at least in the ring. Pushups, situps, wrestling get ups, and then how to get back down, as well as squats. Moving into the ring, there was no actual wrestling done, but how to do a forward roll, get up to your feet and into ready position, shoulder rolls, backwards rolls, and different variations of those types of roles. Along with taking bumps, and learning how to fall, as an offensive lineman I never want to hit the ground, but now I'm learning how to hit the ground properly without being hurt. Then hitting the ropes. It was awesome. It was like a dream."
He said that Wednesday there were two training sessions while Thursday and Friday there was one training session and one promo session.
When asked how he thought he did, he said, "I thought in-ring stuff, I did well. They sent videos of how to roll properly, how to do get-ups, and ever since I got the call, I trained to perfect what I could do, so when I got in there, I have a general idea and I felt like I was a step up in that department. The promo stuff, I didn't stumble with my words, I got what I wanted to say out there. I might have been a little safe with it just because I thought I did pretty well in-ring and I wanted to make sure I got what I wanted to say without stumbling over words. I'm comfortable speaking in front of people like I do with oral arguments in law school, speaking in front of my team with football. Speaking in front of people like Triple H is definitely more nerve-racking. I tried not to think about it, just focus on the camera and say what you gotta say. It takes practice, you have to know a general idea of what you want to say. Then it just flows. It's how you enunciate and bring your voice up and bring it back down and connect with the audience. People get heel promos and babyface promos, so you don't know what you're going to get and you have to prepare for both."
Roman said there was a lot of diversity at the tryout with athletes from all fields and countries participating. He noted that his coaches didn't want him doing any wrestling as he could have been hurt, and fortunately, there was no wrestling.
Roman is listed at 6'2" and 280 pounds as an offensive lineman.
When asked if that's considered small by WWE standards, Roman replied, "There were people who were 6'7'', 6'8'', there were a few guys around my height too, probably a little skinnier and more defined. There are people in WWE around the same height. Roman Reigns, he stole my name so we have some beef there, he's about my height. I was at Monday Night Raw in Pittsburgh and I was standing front row. He's about my height, a little more cut up, he's the champion, but when someone takes your name, there is a little business to be had there."
He said he didn't have a WWE name ready, but when it was brought up that his nickname on Instagram is Mace and he could use that, he mentioned that WWE had someone named MACE (Brennan Williams in RETRIBUTION)
Roman also said that he was hoping to hear back from WWE this week to learn about his potential future with the company.
Nick Khan commented on using the NIL program and athletic route to finding the next WWE Superstar in an interview during WrestleMania week. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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