Rich Bocchini On How It’s Easy To Get “Overlooked” In WWE NXT
During his recent appearance on The Wrestling Inc. Daily, Warrior Wrestling commentator Rich Bocchini [fka Rich Brennan] recalled his time as an employee of WWE.
When asked by Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman if Trey Miguel made a wise move by choosing to stay with Impact instead of signing with WWE earlier this year, Bocchini was very candid in stating that WWE tends to "overlook" a lot of its talent.
"I think it's so easy to get overlooked right now at WWE," Bocchini said. "Yes, there are hours and hours of content they produce, and I'm not trying to sling mud but most of it [content] is not good right now. Further that, how many bodies do they have there? So, it's so easy to get lost in the shuffle.
"From my understanding, they [Miguel's former tag partners] won the NXT Tag Titles, so that's definitely an exception to the rule. They brought them [MSK] in and are immediately doing stuff with them. That doesn't always happen. It's such a crapshoot there. Yes, there is some stability and the pay check is nice without a doubt.
"It says a lot about Trey's belief in himself. Whether he had an offer to go to WWE or not, he seems to have broken off from his group [The Rascalz] and he's forging his own path. I was surprised when he won the Warrior Championship, I didn't see that coming. Not to say that he's not worthy but he's just so fresh as a singles competitor. I'm kind of excited to see where he goes with it. Again, for him to go on his own shows there's a fire that burns there."
When asked to reflect on his time in Warrior Wrestling and MLW with AEW star Brian Pillman Jr., Bocchini recalled a night in Tijuana after they taped a show and went out.
"I remember spending some time with him," Bocchini recounted. "It was late and we tried to get something to eat. I got to know him a little bit.
"Talk about peeling the onion back, there's a lot of layers there, but after hearing what he went through during the Dark Side of the Ring episode [about his father], I realized what a tough kid he is. And the thing is, a lot of times people who go through that kind of trauma become very hardened, and that's not Brian at all."
Hausman and Bocchini also spoke about Warrior Wrestling running a show last summer in an outdoor High School football stadium, and how such shows could allow wrestlers – hit by the pandemic – to return to work.
"For sure. Mentally, it was great for everyone, just to get back out there and see people again. It was good even though we maintained social distancing, but just getting back a little normalcy was great. Warrior Wrestling has definitely become a destination, everyone who comes through talk about how much they enjoy working there. It's very similar to Defy Wrestling. Although Warrior Wrestling is a relatively young company, it's already in the upper echelon of indie companies. It really is like an All-Stat wrestling event. Every time there's a show, we're able to bring in names from all these different places, and make it really exciting."
Warrior Wrestling presents it's first Stadium Series show of the summer on June 5th! For more information please visit www.WarriorWrestling.net. You can follow Rich on Twitter @RichBocchini. You can find the full audio and video from Rich's interview below: