Kazeem Fumuyide is no longer with WWE, but he is at WrestleMania weekend, and his impact is felt at WaleMania yet again.
Kaz and friend Wale will be at Thursday's WaleMania event, the fifth consecutive edition. A hot spot for WWE Superstars the week of WrestleMania, many will swing by to see Kazeem himself. Fumuyide spent a year on WWE's writing staff before leaving earlier this year and had a hand in several memorable moments.
One of which was perhaps the greatest audience participation bit of 2018. While in Seattle, Elias targeted a sore spot for the city -- their lack of an NBA team since the departure of the SuperSonics. When talking to Fightful, Kazeem opened up about helping to put the segment together.
"When that's going on, I'm in Gorilla. I'm in a who's who of people I grew up watching. It's like American Idol, when you walk out for an audition -- Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul are sitting there and you have to do your think. They know what's coming, but after that it's all about how the crowd reacts, how it comes off on TV. Obviously the Elias Seattle moment was huge, but there's a whole lot of moments where your (favorite) part is coming up on a movie, and you wanna tap someone like 'you haven't seen anything yet, watch here.' That's how it felt with the Elias segment," said Famuyide
While Kazeem had confidence in the subject matter, Elias perhaps wasn't as sure going in. Needless to say, that changed when it was put to the test. He and Kevin Owens gained an insane chorus of boos from an angry crowd.
"I knew how passionate Seattle were about the SuperSonics, but Elias didn't know. He was kind of like 'are you sure it's going to work?' We had a whole different thing, but it wasn't ready yet. It was Vince or Ryan Callahan, who helped write that, that said 'we're going to do it the way it's written.' Elias was like 'are you sure they're going to react to it?' Yes I'm sure! He came back and we were laughing up a storm," said Kazeem.
After moving on from WWE, Kazeem now focuses on this week's WaleMania. The show's namesake, hip hop star Wale is a major wrestling fan, embraced by the community. Subsequently, several wrestlers have ended up seeing an increased profile as a result.
"If he likes something, he obsesses about it, and that's how he feels about pro wrestling. A lot of wrestlers have benefited off of that. I don't think Apollo Crews would have met Mark Henry if it wasn't Wale tweeting about him. Guys like Lio Rush, Ricochet -- Wale's been a champion for a lot of these guys," said Famuyide.
You can attend WaleMania V on Thursday, April 4 at Sony Hall in New York, New York. Doors open at 7 PM with the show taking place at 9 PM EST. The show features the WrassleRap podcast live, and Wale & Kaz themselves at the event. You can get ticket at this link.