Lexis King On His WWE NXT Presentation: It Was 100% Real, This Isn't A Character

Lexis King discusses the realism behind his work in WWE thus far.

Brian Pillman Jr. made his WWE NXT debut under the name Lexis King in October after starting his career under his father’s name. However, WWE gave him the creative freedom to start over, which he says was a dream come true, as he said on Booker T’s Hall of Fame podcast. (H/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)

“It was 100% real,” King said. “I felt that way for a very long time. It was just a shot in the dark, a pure chance that the creative happened to be right on board with that. I came into WWE, I told them my story, I told them my real story. I don’t have a gimmick. This isn’t a character. This is real life. Wrestling has had a real impact on my life and I said, ‘this is what I need to do.’ I wanted this. I wanted to become my own man. It’s impossible to be better than. The second coming is never better than the original. I was never going to be a better Brian Pillman, I knew that and I knew that I needed to more or less disparage his name and create my own.”

Lexis King On Choosing A New Name

Lexis King then made it clear that trying to be Brian Pillman Jr. in WWE would have been an uphill battle, and he’s trying to make it on his own.

“I don’t have any hatred towards my father,” he said. “But it would have been an uphill battle to be Brian Pillman II or Brian Pillman Jr., I’ve gone 30 years with his name. To come here and have this company give me the opportunity to create my own name, it was a dream come true, and it all just fell together. They gave me a few things to say, but there wasn’t really a script.

“‘Tell us your story.’ I went on the camera and everything I said was true and 100% from the heart. I didn’t know him. Everybody loved him. I don’t hate him. He was a great man. I inherited a lot of positive traits from him, but I don’t owe him anything to use his name any further. It’s his name, and now it’s time for me to make mine.”

Lexis King On Getting A Fresh Start

Lexis King continued by highlighting how he is telling a raw story.

“I’m never going to outshine him and what he did, especially the way he passed. It’s like Tupac and these great artists. When they die at their peak, they are immortalized at their peak. There is no outdoing that. He was revered for what he did…. To come in here and be given the creative go, ‘you pick your name.’ They didn’t even go back and forth with me. They said ‘we want you to be you.’

“To come in with a real raw story that I don’t have to fake or read from a script, this is who I am. No one else has that on me. If you watch Dark Side of the Ring, this business has had a severe impact on my life. Despite all that, I’m stronger than ever. I got here because of this business, because of the great impact that it has had. While it may have put me back a few steps in my childhood, here I am now, thriving, traveling the world, and I finally made it to the biggest stage of them all. I think I deserve a shot, 100%, on everything I can do, inside this career and outside. A fresh start for Lexis King.”