Roman Macek Reveals Details Of WWE Tryout Process During WrestleMania 38 Week

Roman Macek, an offensive lineman at Duquesne, recently participated in the WWE tryout during WrestleMania 38 week in Dallas, and in an interview on Breakfast With Benz, he discussed the details of the tryout process and how he thinks he fared. Here are some highlights (via Fightful):

Roman Macek on the details of the WWE tryout process: “The first session we had, was more getting physicals, we had lunch, we had promo class. We were brought in by executives who worked on the promo side, the writers and stuff like that, and taught how to cut a promo and use your words to tell a story and that a match is a match, but a promo is also a match and they are equal in that part. We also had performance testing where we were throwing medicine balls overhead to see how far we could do that. Vertical, broad jumps, and little drills to gauge athletic abilities to see how you move. I think they wanted to see if anyone was able to move with ease. We’re all athletes, so I don’t think anybody had a problem with that stuff. Then we got into the nitty gritty and wrestling aspect, at least in the ring. Pushups, situps, wrestling get ups, and then how to get back down, as well as squats. Moving into the ring, there was no actual wrestling done, but how to do a forward roll, get up to your feet and into ready position, shoulder rolls, backwards rolls, and different variations of those types of roles. Along with taking bumps, and learning how to fall, as an offensive lineman I never want to hit the ground, but now I’m learning how to hit the ground properly without being hurt. Then hitting the ropes. It was awesome. It was like a dream.”

On how he thinks he fared during the tryout: “I thought in-ring stuff, I did well. They sent videos of how to roll properly, how to do get-ups, and ever since I got the call, I trained to perfect what I could do, so when I got in there, I have a general idea and I felt like I was a step up in that department. The promo stuff, I didn’t stumble with my words, I got what I wanted to say out there. I might have been a little safe with it just because I thought I did pretty well in-ring and I wanted to make sure I got what I wanted to say without stumbling over words. I’m comfortable speaking in front of people like I do with oral arguments in law school, speaking in front of my team with football. Speaking in front of people like Triple H is definitely more nerve-racking. I tried not to think about it, just focus on the camera and say what you gotta say. It takes practice, you have to know a general idea of what you want to say. Then it just flows. It’s how you enunciate and bring your voice up and bring it back down and connect with the audience. People get heel promos and babyface promos, so you don’t know what you’re going to get and you have to prepare for both.”