Arik Royal Talks Cameron Grimes’ NXT Run and Growth, Praises Fred Yehi

CWF and ACTION Wrestling star Arik Royal recently discussed his experiences working with Cameron Grimes and Fred Yehi plus more in a new interview with POST Wrestling’s Andrew Thompson. A few highlights from the interview are below:

On being confident about his skills: “You know, it’s different. It’s definitely different because you’re used to wrestling in front of larger crowds and having more eyes on you and you’re able to be face-to-face with people and get your stuff out there and sell that merchandise, but for me honestly man, it’s definitely helped myself because it’s definitely helped me become more creative, as far as getting myself out there more because I feel like talent-wise, I’m one of the best wrestlers on this planet and I’m not trying to sound cocky. I’m just really confident in my abilities man. Like, I know I can go toe-to-toe and hang with any of the best wrestlers out there in the world and I know that I’m able to go out there and tell a good story with any of those guys and go out there and tear it up man. For me, it’s given me that perspective as to how can I give myself more looks and more notoriety by showing — they know what I can do in the ring but what can I do as far as character work and character development because I do a lot of my talking in the ring, instead of just going out and cutting a promo here and there so…”

On Cameron Grimes’ run in NXT so far: “In 2009, this little skinny, big head kid Trevor Lee comes in, 14-years old and I didn’t know who he was but I knew — see, I train in Sanford [North Carolina] now… and he was training out here, out in Sanford and then his dad, he used to work for OMEGA, he knew coach Jim and I and he brought him up to one of our shows and the rest is pretty much history. I had a 14-year old and a 15-year old kid pushing me to get better because I saw the look in their eyes and the work ethic that Trevor put in to get to where he’s at now, but that helped me because I was like, ‘I gotta keep up with this kid because if I can keep up with him, then I know that I’ll be able to be and keep up with anybody in the ring around the world,’ because to me and I’m not just trying to sound bias because I’m close to him but to me, I feel like he’s one of the best wrestlers in the world and you know, WWE is slowly and surely showing that here and there. They’re showing it with his character and everything, but I’m telling you man, you already know. They go out there and let him have a Trevor Lee match, a Trevor Lee CWF match, these people are gonna be like, ‘Yo, this Cameron Grimes dude is legit’ and I’m just gonna be sitting there like, ‘Duh, been legit bro….’ he definitely helped motivate me.”

On working with Fred Yehi: “Yeah man, Fred’s just a genuine dude. Like he’s a real genuine nice guy who wants to be good and tell great stories in the ring and so, for me to interact with him but [not] only that but Matt [Griffin, ACTION Wrestling promoter] gave us an opportunity to have a program. I loved it because we got to both showcase what we can do and the match is like, if you watch the matches in order, the violence turned up or the brutality — I don’t wanna say violence. More brutality. The brutality turned up in each match, because the very first time I worked him was in NOVA Pro and it was like we were showcasing, we both could wrestle a little bit or we both chop it up a little bit and both throw them strikes. We beat the hell out of each other man, but it was all for the sake of the story and that’s another thing about Fred. Not only is he genuine but he’s a professional too, and he’s creative and we’re always trying to find a thing, somebody gives us something, a ground structure of what we’re gonna do and then leaves it up to us to be creative and come up with something good for the fans to watch. With Fred, it was very easy to do because we both were sold on psychology of the match.”