WWE official Adam Pearce recently appeared on WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves and reflected on his journey to the company and his current role with it. Here are some highlights:
On signing with WWE:
Pearce: “I got a phone call, they said, ‘Hey, this guy’s gonna call you, he’s gonna offer you a tryout, we’re not interested in you as a talent, know that upfront but accept the tryout.’ In the weeks leading up to it, it became evident what I was being considered for. They wanted to see what I might do if given the opportunity to be a coach. Keep in mind, I had never trained anybody outside of being a locker room veteran.”
“I travelled back and forth, I wanna say nine times, eight times maybe, as a guest coach. It was the longest job interview in the history of job interviews. I’d come for a week and go home. Two months later I’d come for a week and go home.”
“It was crazy. It was a long journey.”
On WWE only wanting him as a coach:
Pearce: “I had a resume outside of ‘Scrap Iron,” Adam Pearce, NWA champion, that I could kind of hang my hat on. I think WWE saw value in, ‘Hey, there’s this guy who has this kind of varied experience that maybe we don’t need to teach everything to, from ground zero,’ so to speak. It was a perfect fit at the perfect time.”
On his current role in WWE:
Pearce: “I’ll get there three or four hours before everybody else, we’ll sit in a meeting, you know the meeting. We’ll go through the festivities of the day that may or may not change at all, it may be etched in stone, and we may follow through with one set of plans.”
“I have become extremely adept at rolling with the punches, and oh the punches, they will be coming. And they will be coming fast and furious and in numerous counts. We are the behind the scenes deliverers of information, sometimes wanted, sometimes not. We are responsible for making sure that our specific duties for the day, be that one segments, two segments, three segments or more, not only hit their time but hit the content we’re responsible for.”
On the most rewarding part of his job:
Pearce: “Whether you’re in the match or you’re responsible for putting the match together, your heart and soul is now a part of that thing.”
“When [the wrestlers] come back from the ring with smiles on their faces, knowing that they just beat the tar out of each other for a couple of segments and “The Chairman of the Board” stands up and gives them a round of applause, that means everybody involved with that segment, the wrestlers, the referee, the cameramen, the producer, the director, nailed it. They all did their job, and when it comes back and it’s a standing ovation in Gorilla [position] dude, there’s nothing better than that.”
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