Stacks Recalls Getting His Start In Wrestling By Winning WWE & Totino’s Contest

Stacks Lorenzo has been a mainstay in NXT for the past few years, and he recently recalled how his start in pro wrestling came through a WWE and Totino’s contest. Stacks has been on NXT TV since 2022, first as the Underboss in the D’Angelo Family. He’s since set out on his own and joined in the NXT invasion of TNA. His relationship with his fiancee Arianna Grace has been incorporated into WWE TV, and he won the TNA International Championship at Final Resolution.

Stacks and Grace appeared on Casual Conversations with The Wrestling Classic for a new interview. Stacks related how he got his start in the business by winning the Totino’s “Show Us Your Superstar” Challenge in 2014. He noted that he caught the wrestling bug from there and trained with Tom Prichard before signing with WWE in 2022. You can see highlights below:

On How He Got Into Wrestling:

“I was in college and I was like — you know, I was an athlete my whole life, but I kind of decided… my dad was a professional boxer. And I actually remember, he was training me for a bit. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, how about you hit the books, kid?’ And not that [I was bad at it], but boxing is — you know, part of the brain stuff. My dad got a brain injury and stuff. So it’s just something that he didn’t want to see me doing.

“So I ended up going to college for engineering. That’s why I can set up all these lights, dude. I’m a pretty smart guy. That’s why [Grace] likes me too, I got some brains. So I basically, my first year of college I actually got really lucky. I entered this contest for WWE. And it was the Totino’s ‘Show Us Your Superstar’ contest. And it was 2014, and I made this character. I was ‘Mama’s Boy’ Jake Tucker, I was living on my mom’s front lawn in a popup trailer.”

On Winning the Contest:

“But I submit this video. I end up beating everybody who’s in the contest and stuff. So they sent me out to the Performance Center to train. And so I was training at the
Performance Center, learning how to bump. Recording this video series with like Billy Gun, Road Dog. It was supposed to be with Dusty Rhodes too, but it was Bill DeMott.

“And dude, I debuted at Full Sale, I posted this recently. I debuted at Full Sail out of a microwave with little pizza rolls that came out with me. And I ended up doing something at SummerSlam, too. I was on the pre-show panel at SummerSlam with like Ric Flair, Booker T.”

On Being Hooked At That Point:

“That moment — like, no matter what I did in my life from then on out. I did engineering. I was going to go to medical school, believe it or not. She doesn’t believe me. But I was I was gonna. I tried all these things, and it always kept going back to like that one moment. I couldn’t match that feeling that I got when I went out in front of the fans. And I was hooked right away.”

On Training With Tom Prichard:

“Right after I graduated college, I started training with Dr. Tom at Kane’s school out in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Tom’s the man. Yeah. The man. He used to head up the — you know, he was the Performance Center before the Performance Center. I mean, this guy trained everybody.

“And he trained me so hard to the point where I was in his warehouse in Knoxville eight hours a day 2019, throughout the pandemic. And he’s why I’m here where I am, too. Him and Natty and TJ. They’re my team that took me to where I’m at. And yeah, [I] ended up getting signed and having the same tryout together [with Grace], and we both signed together.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Casual Conversations with The Wrestling Classic with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.