Tate Wilder Details How He Transitioned From Football To WWE

Tate Wilder came into WWE through the NIL program, and the NXT talent recently spoke about moving from football to pro wrestling. Wilder joined WWE in 2022 through their Next In Line program after his NFL career was cut off due to past college injuries. He made his debut on WWE Evolve in March of 2025.

Wilder spoke with ALLCITY Wrestling for a new interview and spoke about how he wasn’t sure about WWE when he was first contacted about it in college. He recalled when he decided to change his focus and more; you can see the highlights below (per Fightful):

On When His Focus Shifted From Football To Something Else:

“When my career came to an end with the Jets, we were in communication with a bunch of other teams, keeping that dream alive. At a certain point, it kind of became like — it’s not that I fell out of love with the sport of football, but it was more of it wasn’t the same as it was when I was growing up. I kind of felt like a shift in my mindset of like, something’s changing.”

On Turning His Attention To Wrestling:

“Yeah no, it is a completely different game at that level. It was kind of crazy how it all happened. We get released by the Jets and I’m still dealing with some physical stuff. My medical record got flagged by the NFL through some past injuries in college. We’re dealing with trying to pass the physical and open up the windows for other opportunities to go train with teams. In this whole confusing time in my life is when the WWE called. It was crazy because in college I was like, ‘Yeah, you know, WWE is cool but that’s not my direction. My direction is completely football and that’s it.’ Whoever was representing the NIL class at the time was like, ‘Hey dude, we will be in contact with you in the future.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, cool.’

“We get done with the Jets and then like two days later, I get a phone call from a random Orlando number. I’m like, ‘Alright, whatever, I’ll answer it.’ I answer this phone call and it is the WWE. They’re like, ‘Hey dude, it’s Wednesday. We’re doing a NIL deal Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, can we fly you out tomorrow morning?’ I’m like, ‘You know what, screw it, let’s go.’ I tell my agent like, ‘Hey, push pause on all these teams right now, I’m gonna go check this WWE thing out and see what’s going on.’ As soon as they gave me an opportunity to get in the ring and roll around and feel the ropes and take a bump and express myself with the extreme side, it was kind of like, game over. I told my agent, I said, ‘This is my direction and I do not want to go anywhere else. Here it is, let’s go.’