Zicky Dice has become a breakout star in the NWA, but WWE had their crack at him and blew it.
The charismatic Dice is now NWA TV Champion, lighting up screens weekly on Powerrr, however, just two years ago he was able to do extra work in WWE. As he remembered when speaking with Fightful, it went amazingly well.
"Oh, these are—you’re getting some of my favorite stories. I did WWE extra work my first time in June 2018. I walked in, I was in the conga line for No Way Jose. They put me there in the conga line. Had a little try-out match. I got a round of applause after. It was all great, and I was all hyped from that. Cool. Go back in June 2019 and get another standing ovation and D-Von (Dudley) walks up to me. He’s like, “Listen, can I critique your match?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “The only thing wrong with is that Vince McMahon wasn’t there to see it himself.” All I did, I took one bump. I walked in, turned five single one dollar bills into a hundreds right in front of their face, I did a few magic tricks in the match and then I do a spinning neckbreaker where cards come raining out of nowhere and that’s all I did in there," said Dice.
It wasn't just D-Von that took notice. WWE had a plethora of agents and producers, including former NWA World Heavyweight and ECW Champions. Dice remembered the reaction that he was able to garner from them, as well.
"Adam Pearce walked up to me after. He said, “Zicky, so, you popped everyone around the ring, but can you work?” I said, “With all due respect, if I would have actually worked, would you have watched?” He’s all, “Who trained you?” I said, “Seth Rollins.” He’s like, “Alright.” Shane McMahon walks up to me at the airport, he’s like, “Are you the magic guy I heard about all day?” This story gets wild. Steve Corino was like, “Hey, that was great,” we’re getting all this good advice. I was there at NXT that week to do some extra work as well, and he’s like, “You should go and talk to Triple H. You should go and tell him what happened here.” I was riding high on my horse, like, “Oh, dude, that’s it. It’s in the bag,” you know?"
It was not in the bag.
Dice showed up at NXT as mentioned, and tried to introduce himself to Triple H. According to Dice, not only did Triple H gave him the cold shoulder and even almost got thrown out of the building altogether.
"I go up to talk to Triple H like I was told to do and I was like, “Hey, H. I’m here for the next few days. I was told to talk to you, all I need is thirty seconds of your time.” He goes, “Yeah, sure.” The next day I was outside on a phone call and he walks past, I say, “Hey, got a minute?” He’s all, “Absolutely not.” Then I was walked outside, “Hey, if this was RAW or Smackdown, we would have kicked you out and we would asked you to never come back.” I said, “Why?” “You’re not supposed to go and talk to Triple H unless asked.” I said, “Well, I was told to.” They said, “By who?” I was like, “That man right there, and them over there.” He’s like, “Nope, that’s not how it works.” I said, “Alright.” So be it. I left and that was that. It kinda broke my mentality a little bit. I had Jeff Jarrett coming back saying, “Dude, you’re a star. We never give anyone standing ovations. Go talk to Triple H. Vince McMahon should have seen your match.” Then making me go back to my job at the time in the real world was tough mentally. The best advice I got was to make myself undeniable. So, I took that experience, I was like, “Alright dude. You can taste it. You could see it. Let’s go get it,'" Dice told us.
Dice, who is notably trained by Seth Rollins says that he never heard back from WWE, and the experience completely soiled him on the idea of doing any more extra work.
"It’s a true story. You can ask Levi Shapiro and you can ask the crew that was there. Standing ovation. It was unreal. They were like, “We don’t do that. This doesn’t happen. I never heard anything from it.” So, I will say this, extra work is for the birds and I am not an extra. That’s that. I knew that before hand. But, you gotta show face. You gotta let ‘em see. I walked in with a hot pink suit, pink shoes, pink fanny pack. You know how I do, and that’s exactly how I did. I turn heads everywhere I went. Michael Hayes walked up to me, “You’re stealing my look, kid.” I said, “I would never do that, dad.” That’s what I said in front of everybody. I don’t give a shit. I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do and let the past. It’s different times now and we’ll see what happens," Dice closed.
You can see our full interview with Zicky Dice above, and check him out on Twitch.
