Jimmy House Credits Gabe Sapolsky For Opening The Door To WWE For Him
Jimmy House discusses his journey to WWE ID.
Before joining the program in March, House participated in tryout for WWE in January. Before that, he had been in contact with the company for years.
“So my personal story with my tryout actually starts about four years prior to that where I got my black belt in jiu-itsu and that was, in a way, a chapter closed for me because I wanted to use that success on top of some of the other things I had accomplished athletically at the time to parlay into something like maybe a professional wrestling or acting to see what my true potential in life is, to see how many people I can have an impact on. So I was very blessed because shortly after I got my black belt, I actually had a couple people at the time refer me to the recruitment department at WWE, which was entirely different than it is now. But within about a week and a half time frame, I had got a call from the recruitment department in Stanford, Connecticut, saying that they had been referred to me by a couple of different people and they would like me to put in a resume. At that time I thought that there was a likelihood that I could get a tryout. So I started learning bumps and rolls at Phoenix Championship Wrestling in Arizona under coach Dom Vitalli, but I never got the call back.” Jimmy House told Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp in a new interview.
After talking with people from WWE, House decided to start at the very bottom of the wrestling industry. This would ultimately lead to the previously mentioned tryout, where he was a self proclaimed standout.
“Then at that point, just how I am, once I put my name out as something, regardless of if it’s the short way or the long way, I have to continue to pursue that. It’d be just, if anything, for my ego and pride alone. But that being said, it forced me to move from Arizona to Austin, Texas, to try to put myself at the bottom of the barrel, to start on the indies, to start from the very bottom of professional wrestling—not in a negative way, but like at the bottom where everybody else starts. I’m really glad that that was a story for me. So then after a year on the indies is getting the call in November that I had eight weeks to prepare for that tryout. It was very full circle for me because I had that short term gratification taken away to some degree when I thought I was gonna get a tryout and then the call never came back. Then I forced myself to move and made all these different sacrifices so on and so forth and did the indies. Then I finally got that call back that essentially motivated me to even learn how to bump, to learn how to roll. So it was a huge accomplishment for me internally given the story that I just said. After that, I took it like, ‘Okay, I know how to do a bodybuilding prep. I’ve done that a couple of times. So I’m going to bodybuilding prep myself from a physique standpoint.’ I know how to train myself on an athletic basis. I have people that I can reach out to that that can help me prepare athletically for this and then in the ring and on the mic. I try to utilize all my resources. I felt as though when I came into that tryout, truthfully speaking, I was the most prepared I had been for anything really in my life. Without spilling the exact feedback that I was given at the tryout, I am very confident in saying I was a standout at the tryout to say the least. That’s coming from somebody who was knocking on the door per se. It was iffy of whether or not I was going to get a tryout because of my inexperience, my age, my knee injury history, my height, these different things that were working against me. But I had a lot of confidence that once I got into the tryout, I could show these people not only what I can do, but who I am as a person and as a professional, that I could stand out in that manner and I believe I did so.”
Jimmy House also took a moment to credit Gabe Sapolsky, saying that he was the first person to open the WWE door for him.
“So the reason why I got the tryout or how I got the tryout was because I was working with Gabe leading up to that initial tryout call. I have to give so much credit to Gabe because with some of the people that I’m friends with in the industry or the people I’ve worked with on a coaching front, a lot of times people assume that I got that tryout from my personal network. It was actually the exact opposite. I went the route of doing his one-on-one consultation calls and taking his feedback and working on that feedback and showing him that I was willing and able to make progress. Then once the personal build fit what they’re looking for, for that particular tryout—like I said, I squeaked open the door and snuck through and I remember Gabe’s words was I kicked through the door once I got in, I was able to show a lot more than even what I could in the matches he was reviewing. I just had to give so much credit to Gabe because really he was of the first people and, if anything, the first person to open that WWE door for me. Even though I’m not with WWE or the program anymore, it’s something that undoubtedly set off a huge stint of momentum for myself that I can now use moving forward on top of all the knowledge I gained. So I have a lot to thank Gabe for that in particular.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jimmy House said that he learned how to work heel in WWE EVOLVE. Check out his full comments by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Jimmy House in the video linked at the top of this article.
