Jasper Troy chose to chase WWE 'dream' after football 'wasn't fun anymore'
Troy, whose real name is Antoine Frazer, played college football at Northern Iowa before he decided to start his journey into a WWE ring. He told Fox News Digital that getting into the company was always dream for him, even back when he was picking up the sticks with his friends.
"For me, wrestling was always a dream. I know it's so oversaid, but for me, I was really locked in every Monday, every Thursday. Sunday, I would watch the little preview pay-per-view channel just to get a glimpse of what the pay-per-view was going to be like," he said. "For me, it was begging for the newest 'SmackDown vs. Raw' (video game). Going to my friend's house, and that's what we would play all day and night."
Troy said football wasn't fun anymore as he competed for the Panthers and finished his collegiate career.
Eventually, he said there came a point in which football wasn't fun anymore. The sport he grew to love fell out of favor with him.
"Me and my brother, we would always talk about wrestling together," he said. "I was playing football, and I was lucky to be successful at playing football but, like (Tyra Mae Steele) said, it just got to a point where it wasn't fun anymore.
"It stopped being about the things that made me love the sport, especially at a college level, a D1 level. There were so many more factors that, coming where I come from, I was exposed to at the time, but I don't think I was mature enough to adapt to my surroundings as well as other guys on my team were."
He said there was a time when he had to make a decision about what came next, and his heart was set on pro wrestling. He said he had the support from his trainers, but they implored him to finish school first.
"When COVID hit I just had a chance to look away from football for like a year and really figure out what I wanted to do with my life," he told Fox News Digital. "I love football and I could keep chasing this dream and see how far I could really make it and I just kept seeing more wrestling on my TV during COVID.
"It was all perfect timing for me. As soon as I did my pro day, I had a tryout with the WWE, and after that, I just fell in love, and that was it. It was that fire I had when I was a kid. It was a whole new experience for me, and after that, I said, 'I'm done with football. I'm a full-time WWE superstar.'"
Troy will now get to make an impact on the NXT roster and join the rising stars in the men's division there.
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