Street Profits Discuss How They Got Started In NXT

Montez Ford & Angelo Dawks made a soft debut as a team in 2016, but it wasn’t until August 2017 when they became The Street Profits. 

In just over two years, Ford & Dawkins have become one of the more popular acts on WWE television and have earned the trust to carry a segment such as the recently debuted Monday After Weekend Update. Both men come from an athletic background with Dawkins being a former amateur wrestler and Ford working in the Marines. 

Speaking to Corey Graves on WWE After The Bell, they discussed how they got started in WWE.

“I got recruited at National Duels, a wrestling tournament in college. Jerry Brisco was there. I didn’t know too much about wrestling. I knew who Vince McMahon was, but I didn’t know who Jerry Brisco was. I shrugged it off. I got done wrestling, here comes Jerry Brisco, ‘I want to talk to you about coming to WWE.’ We talked for a minute, he ended up getting me a tryout later that year and I ended up in FCW,” said Dawkins.

Once he arrived in FCW, Dawkins was immediately caught off guard by what is known as picture day.

“I just started, didn’t have any wrestling gear and they were like, ‘You gotta go here to take pictures.’ All I had was basketball shorts,” he recalled. “I remember [Corey] and a couple guys looking at me like, ‘What is this guy doing? How is he here? Why is he here? My man showed up in basketball shorts.’ There was a couple guys that offered trunks to me, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can fit in them. I’m just gonna stay in my basketball shorts until I get gear for me.’ A bunch of the guys were giving me lectures and yelling at me over it, which, I probably deserved it. But, it’s funny now, my first wrestling pictures were in basketball shorts and ironically, now, I wrestle in basketball shorts.”

As for Ford, it took him multiple tryouts before he was signed by WWE. 

“I did Marines straight out of high school and did contracting for the military. WWE had the portion on the website where you could go to WWE Recruit. I sent in pictures and videos, but I didn’t hear anything for maybe a few months. Eventually, they emailed me back and said I had a tryout. I went to my first tryout in 2013. I got the ‘no’ back saying, ‘You speak well, but you need to put on some weight.’ I took that to heart, so the next time they saw me, I had put on like 45 pounds. That’s when I got signed,” recalled Ford. “I didn’t have any Indie experience. It’s one of those things where you can watch your whole life, but to actually do it are two separate things. It’s something we’re still learning about and it’s completely different from watching it and crafting the art itself.”

The Street Profits recently signed new multi-year contracts with WWE, keeping them locked into the company for the foreseeable future. The duo is currently part of the WWE Raw brand. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.