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This is incredible https://t.co/Jg7TV4ILKy
— Cameron Grimes (@CGrimesWWE) July 1, 2022
A great tradition when it comes to professional wrestling continues tonight on WWE NXT 2.0 on the USA Network with the 2022 edition of The Great American Bash, a show that has its roots all the way back to Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair and all sorts of other Hall of Famers. Tonight, the main event will feature the son of a WWE Hall of Famer Bron Breakker defending against the former North American and Million Dollar Champion Cameron Grimes. Grimes sat down with PWInsider.com yesterday to discuss tonight's event and broadcast. Transcription by Billy Krotchsen.
Mike Johnson: Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, The Road Warriors and tonight Cameron Grimes gets to main event the Great American Bash. How are you and are you excited about the Great American Bash this week?
Cameron Grimes: Hey, Mike, thanks for having me. You know, I am excited. Especially when you put it like that - The Great American Bash, those guys, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair ...what better person to main event the Great American Bash than the Mid-Atlantic icon that is Cameron Grimes?
Mike Johnson: Let's talk about your own roots because this entire scenario with Bron Breakker started a couple of weeks ago on NXT television when you came out and talked about how Bron Breakker's father got to watch him win the championship. And you talked about your own dad who unfortunately is no longer with us. Obviously it was a very personal promo, it comes from the heart. But what did it mean to you to be able to bring your dad and his memory into the public persona that is Cameron Grimes on NXT programming?
Cameron Grimes: Yeah, so my father was a huge fan of mine and the fact that I get to honor him just means the world and I just know that he's smiling from ear to ear. But you see, the problem is, I started this year saying that I needed to be a champion for my father. And I did that, I accomplished that. I won the North American Championship on the biggest show of the year, Stand And Deliver. But I was only champion for 65 days and for me, that's not long enough to say that I'm your champion and when I lost that North American Title, you know, it really hurts but instead of like trying to like, just kind of go back and said you know what, I'm just going to put everything towards Bron. I mean, if I'm as good as I think I am, if I am what I say I am then I'm good enough to be the champion and that is the NXT champion. Yeah it makes me jealous, I mean e a lot of things about Bron make me jealous. The kid is a freak. I mean, I worked 14 years in this business, and he's been in the business for three months and he's in a better position than I am. So yeah, I'm a little jealous about that. And then I'm extremely jealous that his father got to watch him win and I only got to talk about my father so I mean, yeah, there's jealousy there. But that's about it. It's just jealousy.
Mike Johnson: There was a line that you said on TV this past week, where you talked about how if Bron Breakker lost at the Great American Bash, he's moving on to Raw or Smackdown. There's no doubt about it. One day, somebody's going to come and tap him on the shoulder and say, We have plans for you. You lose the North American Championship and you basically described your match with Bron Breakker as this is your only other plan. And if this doesn't happen for you, you don't know what the future will be for you. Obviously, art imitates life but how true to the bone did you feel this was your reality as a performer for the company when you made those comments about Bron Breakker and yourself?
Cameron Grimes: So I think the best part about Cameron Grimes is that it's always, you're getting it, you're saying art imitates reality and that is true and Cameron Grimes is very passionate, has always been very passionate, whether I was cutting grass, or whether I'm challenging for the NXT Championship. So I mean, yeah. Let's be real, you know, I mean, I'm one of the last black and gold guys in a system where it feels like 28 may be too old but I can't just go crawling back to the North American Championship. I don't have a tag partner. I could win the title, the tag team. So if I lose this, I go from being on the highest peak this year to the trenches and I don't know if I'm in a position where I can just start back from the beginning. I don't know if I'm in a position where I can just start over and this is truly in my head - this is my only chance I have.
Mike Johnson: I wanted to ask you about being in NXT because you started there in 2019 and the Trevor that we saw before and after you came into WWE NXT are two completely different personalities. There was more of a focus on everything you did in the ring and then with Cameron Grimes, we got to see the personality come out of you, we got to see the different evolution of the characters. When I think about Cameron Grimes I feel like every so often, there's an evolution in the person that we see on camera. What was it like getting into that Performance Center and figuring out how to bring out other aspects of you. You're always a very charismatic person, but the Cameron Grimes that we see is very different from what we saw in the Carolinas and elsewhere before you got the NXT. So what was it like figuring out the proper formula to bring Cameron Grimes to life and then evolve him over time?
Cameron Grimes: On the independents, before WWE and, you know, places I had been before. I always felt like in the locker room, I was always kind of making everybody laugh, you know, I mean, I always kind of seemed like I had a good personality. But then I didn't know how to like, really transfer that over into a character. And I think just the whole Cameron Grimes presentation helped me just really bring that out because then it wasn't Trevor, it was me being Cameron Grimes and especially in the black and gold era, we had guys that were the wrestlers. We had guys that were really good at doing all that. So I needed to figure out how I can stand out in that brand. And it was bringing out that personality. It was bringing out that charisma and making people go, "What is this loud mouth guy looking crazy doing?" But then like, that helps kind of draw people in and then we're so blessed that we're, we have 52 weeks of television a year, so I have so many opportunities to just give you a little bit more of that character and in the past year for sure, in the past year you've been able to see such a wide range of what Cameron Grimes is. And that's just cause I just bring the passion, I'm really passionate about this. This is all I have and it's going to go back towards another shot at Bron but I don't have the backup plan and that's why I'm so passionate. And whether it's being a butler for LA Knight or challenging for the NXT title, I'm just going to be bringing everything I have. And I think people respect that about Cameron Grimes.
Mike Johnson: I feel like the moment that everything came together for Cameron Grimes you know, some people point to the whole Gamestop thing and when you come back, you're the richest guy in NXT but I feel like the moment where all that crystallized and became perfect was that music video of you in the hot tub, the cigars and all that. When you are the personality that is going to be featured in a video or vignette like that and you were there because you have to be obviously for all the different parts as it's being put together, how different is it in your brain versus the fully edited version that the fans get to see? How different is it when you're watching the different components put together in your brain versus what you finally see when the final product rolls out on television and you see it the same way the fans do?
Cameron Grimes: It's definitely a funny process. Some of those things take a lot and with the Cameron Grimes character, luckily we had a lot of off side shoots that we got to just do stuff that, you know, with different jewelry stores and houses and all this cool stuff. So like it was so surreal to just be like, well I mean here I am in the million dollar home like shooting things and like it's so silly and I'm like, you know, I just feel so silly while I'm doing it you know, laughing the whole time but JB, Jeremy Borash, the guys that are filming this and then been putting this stuff together, are so good. Like, they're just so good at what they do so like, it just makes you laugh again, because it's like well like when we were there they were laughing at how silly this is, and then now when I watch it, I'm just laughing at how good it is, how well they put it together. I don't know if that even answered your question or not, but like it's just so...I don't know, it's just so cool. I just never thought that I would get to do those things. And then as you know, the Trevor Lee character originally like you'd never thought you would see him pulling up in a Lamborghini or hanging out with Ted DiBiase in a Rolls Royce, somehow we got to that point and it just worked.
Mike Johnson: You talked about, just a couple of minutes ago, how passionate you are about NXT. There's so much talk about how it's changed over the last year or so. How has your passion changed as you watch the product change before the eyes of the fans and the performers? What's it like redirecting the energy of Cameron Grimes as the entire brand changed and the whole focus of the brand changed, what was that pivoting like for you? You know, Cameron Grimes, the entire story of that character has been you figuring out what's best for you in the WWE system. How do you pivot as the WWE system changes under your feet?
Cameron Grimes: Right and you know, I can honestly say that NXT 2.0 has been a huge thing for me. I can tell you that, you know, the first year and a half that I was here like I was kind of complacent because I've already kind of been working with these guys for so long, the guys that were leading that brand, I didn't, for some reason, I just didn't feel like I had to work hard with those guys and I know that's weird to say but like, I don't know, I just didn't feel like I was as motivated but this NXT 2.0, there's just so many guys that for one, have never done this before, and then they're just such great athletes and then when you see them, like for instance the Creed Brothers, these guys have never been sports entertainers in their lives, but they're having matches right now that are just up to par with anything that would have been on NXT 1.0. So then I have to sit back and look at myself and go, am I really working the hardest? Did I get complacent? Or do I need to work harder? And I feel like this NXT 2.0 last year has made me work harder. And that's ultimately all you can ever ask for is something that is going to inspire you, so that it's going to motivate you and yeah, it may seem like things are changing. But ultimately, it's all the same goal - be the best that you can be and be the best that you can be for this company. And Cameron Grimes, like I said, whether I'm cutting grass or whether I'm going to be wrestling for a championship, I'm going to be the best that I can be and I'm going to be the best that the company wants to be.
Mike Johnson: I didn't get to ask you about Ted DiBiase when he came in for a little bit, you know, what was it like picking his brain and having a bonafide WWE Hall of Famer around compared to some of the Hall of Famers who were in the Performance Center, obviously Shawn Michaels is there and we know D-Von Dudley's there. There's a lot of other great professional wrestlers who have retired and help oversee and coach talents in the Performance Center. But when you have someone like Ted DiBiase come in just for a short period of time, how different is it, trying to win knowledge and history and ideas from him versus the coaches that you have every week at the Performance Center?
Cameron Grimes: Right. So it's great to anybody learning that you can pick in this business that has done it at an elite level, you're just going to get anything and the best part about Ted was that like, he never really like, tried to like force stuff down. He was more just there having just such a great time and like just really enjoying his experience and, you know, you kind of learn from that as well. Like, I'd rather learn like, Man, I really need to enjoy this and take this in. Because you don't know how many of these moments you're really going to have. So that's how I learned the most from him because he wasn't just trying to push knowledge down our throats to try to go, "Oh, you're doing this wrong. You need to do it this way." He was just there smiling, having a great time. If you came up and talk to him, he loved to tell you, but he was just having such a great time that I took more from that than like actual, "you should step this way in the ring instead of stepping that way," you know what I'm saying?
Mike Johnson: Understood. So the Great American Bash is going to be this Tuesday evening. What does it mean to you to be able to step into yet another main event for NXT and in one of the big cornerstone television broadcasts of the company?
Cameron Grimes: So I feel like this year for sure, the 2022, I feel like every moment has been my biggest moment. I feel like every week that goes by it's just another big opportunity for me. I said at the beginning of the year, I wanted to be a champion. I did that and I lost that. So now I have to be a champion again. I have to keep that going. So that's just what I'm going to do. I'm going into The Great American Bash with no backup plan. I'm going to the Great American Bash with everything that I have in my back pocket. And most importantly, I'm going into the Great American Bash, like I told Bron, with my heart that isn't going to give up and you know, it's a good thing that he played offense because he said that he's going to keep spearing me, so I think I can handle an offensive player, not a defensive player.
Mike Johnson: Well, the best matches in WWE programming and just in general, for the genre are always when there's very different personalities facing off. And I don't think from a stylistic standpoint or personality standpoint, you can get two more different personalities than Bron Breakker and Cameron Grimes. Why should fans make sure they're tuned in at 8 PM Eastern this Tuesday for the Great American Bash on the USA Network to see this?
Cameron Grimes: Fans should always tune in on Tuesdays to USA Network to see WWE NXT 2.0 because we are busting our tails and you've seen it, if you follow online, the stuff that we go through, all the peaks and valleys. We got new colors. We got new this, but we always have is hard workers. We always have consistency. You can always tune in to our show and you know that you are going to see something good on there. And this week it is... what can you miss ?You know, I mean, we got a Tag Team Championship match. We have the Women's Tag Team Championship match, we have a Women's Title match. We have the NXT Championship, we have the North American Championship. We have two hours of television next week that is going to be star studded. You do not want to miss it. If you are a fan of professional wrestling. If you're a fan of sports entertainment. You want to see NXT 2.0 this week on the USA Network.
Mike Johnson: Thank you so much for your time today.
Cameron Grimes: Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me.
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