Joe Gacy Recalls Joining EVOLVE, How THat Led To WWE Signing

Joe Gacy recently looked back on his signing with WWE and how his time in EVOLVE led to the deal. The Schism member talked about the situation on the latest episode of Out of Character with Ryan Satin, and you can see the highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On starting with EVOLVE: “So the first step toward WWE was actually getting involved with EVOLVE Wrestling. So it was a company I was trying to get into for a couple of years. They did a couple of tryout seminar camps and I went to two of them. The first one I went to, it was ran by William Regal. So purely I wanted to get booked by the company, but I was also like, ‘Wow, I’ll just go learn from William Regal.’ So I went and did that mostly just wanting to learn from William Regal and I think they liked me, but they didn’t end up using me.

“Then the next time they did another one was ran by Norman Smiley. So I went and did it. It was just like a tryout. We did some drills and matches and they liked what they saw, so I ended up getting used that night on the show, and then I got used for extra work at ‘NXT’ I think a month after that. I didn’t end up actually doing anything, but I went to the show and met some people.”

On getting contacted by a WWE talent scount after WWE bought EVOLVE: “So it started feeling closer and then unfortunately COVID happened and everything shut down. We were supposed to do WrestleMania week in Tampa in 2020, so a bunch of shows got canceled. We were supposed to do four EVOLVE shows and there were a bunch of matches lined up that I was really excited to do. Then one thing led to another and WWE ended up buying EVOLVE… Monday rolls around and I’m expecting to have to impress this guy on the phone, and five minutes in he says, ‘This is what we’re offering you.’ I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ So I officially got a deal offered to me and I accepted it without questioning it because WWE was always the goal for me. Right from there I accepted it. That was June 2020 and by the end of August 2020, we moved down to Orlando.”