Mansoor Says He Owes a Lot to WWE, Discusses How Daniel Bryan Becoming World Champion Was a Revelation to Him

– WWE.com recently interviewed NXT Superstar Mansoor. Below are some highlights.

Mansoor on how wrestling games got him into pro wrestling: “It wasn’t easy to get wrestling in Saudi Arabia, but what was always accessible were the video games. No Mercy, Here Comes the Pain, the Smackdown vs. RAW series, etc. Those games were how my friends and I learned almost everything we knew. If you had a pay-per-view DVD, you were the king! Nothing beats the real thing. We would dream about a WWE show in Riyadh, where we grew up, but it always felt like a pipe dream. That’s why it means so much to me that we get these Saudi shows and why I so desperately want to wrestle on them. When I was out there at the Greatest Royal Rumble, I saw kids who looked like me, like my friends, who huddled around the PlayStation creating ourselves in games, dreaming one day that would be a reality.”

Mansoor on how seeing Daniel Bryan become a world champion was a revelation: “As I grew up and became more cynical, that dream faded away. I wanted to be a part of the business so bad, but I didn’t think a person like me could make it to WWE. I thought I could be a manager or a referee. That all changed for me when Daniel Bryan won the WWE Championship at SummerSlam 2013. That match was like a revelation. I realized the only thing keeping me from achieving my dream was myself. I was 17 at the time, and if you told me then I’d be in NXT by the age of 23, I’d call you a liar and a phony time traveler.”

Mansoor on what he owes WWE: “I can’t even begin to explain how much I owe WWE. Before getting signed, I was living in an apartment that was falling apart. The heater was broken during winter, mildew was growing all over the bedroom, a hole opened up in the bathroom ceiling from a leaky pipe dripping down. It was bad. I was determined to make a living wrestling full time, so I worked part-time jobs in order to keep my schedule open for training and bookings. I thought it would be years before I even got a shot at a tryout here. Even when my older brother told me about the one in Jeddah last year. He thought this was the perfect opportunity for me, but I was so entrenched in my pessimism that I believed I didn’t have a chance. Luckily, I was convinced to apply, and what followed was the craziest two weeks of my life. I went from struggling to pay rent in Oakland to standing before 60,000 people in King Abdullah Stadium. What I’m most grateful for is now having the means to support my fiancée, who sacrificed everything to be with me and believed in me while I was working on the indies. My life has completely changed.”