(rock music)
- This week we are training to become WWE superstars.
- I know that there's a lot of backstabbing,
changes in momentum.
- Today is our first day of training,
and we are at the WWE Performance Center Headquarters.
- I am fully anticipating it being very difficult
to perform at a top tier athletic level,
while also performing as an entertainer.
Alright, let's go train.
- Hi ladies.
- Thank you so much for being here.
- Thanks for coming.
- Michelle and Sydnee have no idea
what they're in for this week.
- This week we're here to get an immersion into this world.
What are we headed into?
- So first, if you want to be a WWE superstar,
you have to try out at one of the tryouts.
Hopefully you get picked.
There's different steps in terms of,
do you have prior experience?
So you can see in the performance center,
there are seven different rings,
so you either go into the beginners, the experts,
or you kind of bounce back and forth.
You could be doing this for four years,
then you have to learn a move set.
Then you have to figure out your character,
and then you have to put all of that together.
Then you have to figure out, am I a good guy,
am I a bad guy?
It's a lot.
- So this is a pretty ambitious endeavor,
to go from a regular person into a superstar recruit.
While I know we're going to be training a lot this week,
one week of training versus years of training
is incomparable.
- So in order to get you guys prepared,
we're going to have you guys train with Sean in the gym,
and Matt and Sara in the ring.
And then me and Naomi will work with you guys
on character and presentation.
And we're going to send you guys to a promo class
with our NXT superstars.
- I'm excited to push my body to places
that I haven't gone before, and step into
the atmosphere and just understand the world of WWE.
(rock music)
- My name is Sean Hayes.
I'm the strength and conditioning coach
here at the WWE Performance Center.
I'm in charge of the athletes here.
They're all going to be future stars one day.
I need to prevent injury, I need to
keep them in the ring.
For strength conditioning, there's mobility,
there's recovery, soft tissue stuff.
- The gym here at the PC is extremely intimidating.
And on top of that, having Sean in your face
counting every single rep, watching you drip sweat,
not knowing if you're going to make the next one,
he will continue to push you.
Michelle and Sydnee, they're going to do
an active recovery workout.
I'm going to kind of analyze what they can do.
(yelling)
- I always smile when I'm like in pain.
- [Sean] We'll activate the shoulders,
little work, enough to get the body going
and the sweat going, and feel like they worked out.
- I love the conditioning that WWE athletes do.
The coaches here are so knowledgeable about the human body
and how to build strength.
I really do feel like every muscle got worked.
- We got to do leg day with the group,
and it was pretty intense, it was super gnarly,
and it was also the smartest workout I think
I've ever participated in.
It allows you to push yourself while also giving
your body enough time to rest so that you could recover
and continue to push yourself.
- We got our big challenge of the day.
Alright, we're going to farmer's carry half your body weight
in each hand, four minutes farmer's walks,
and see how far you can go in four minutes.
Alright, you're almost halfway baby.
Your goal is 10 trips alright.
Both you girls, I want you to finish down there, let's go.
- Let's just say I'm going to be a pro
at carrying all of my groceries from the car
to the kitchen in one go at this point.
(rock music)
- My name's Matt Bloom.
I'm the head coach at the performance center.
To be able to come here and do what we do,
it takes a big toll on your body first and foremost.
I think it takes passion, I think it takes heart.
I think it takes the willingness to push your body
to places that you haven't been able to go before.
- My name is Sara Amato, and I am the assistant head coach
and the head of female talent.
I think it's really cool when people who have
no experience come in and try and do what we do,
because a lot of people think they can,
they have a preconceived notion that the ring is soft
or that it's something they'll very easily pick up
and it's much harder than you would ever imagine.
- Michelle and Sydnee are going to have the opportunity
to be in this very ring with two of the best coaches today.
They're going to take back bumps.
They're going to take front bumps.
They're going to roll, they're going to hit the ropes.
They're going to strike each other.
- The first thing we do, we start with the foundation,
and that's just proper footwork, moving around the ring.
When she hits that rope, both of her feet are here.
She doesn't have one foot up here,
she's not hitting this way.
Her feet are flat.
Throw that right hook over that top rope to make you turn.
Go like three, one, two, three, turn.
- [Michelle] Those ropes look so soft and billowy
when people are flying at them, they're not.
It feels like a metal rope slapping your back.
- But actually getting into the ring was like entering Mars.
- What do I think the hardest part of today will be?
It's probably going to be bumping.
A bump is when you get knocked down to the ground.
There's a variety of bumps that we teach here.
Back bump, here we go.
So on that back bump, I know it looks scary,
but once you get the hang of it, it's not.
You have to attack the mat.
If you go down slow and sectionally, it sucks.
Tuck your chin.
- Tuck my chin, okay.
- And bump.
Better, not bad at all.
Not bad, not bad.
- [Michelle] It's so counter intuitive to throw your body
backwards into the ground.
And throw your arms back.
I had to face a lot of fears today.
- Flip bump, we always go off one foot.
Watch her right foot.
And her head's replacing.
- When I was very young, I was in gymnastics,
and a girl in my class before my eyes broke her back
doing a flip.
It took me a while to get through the flip bump
because I was trying to get over this fear.
And so I decided to stop, and then I watched Sydnee do it.
She did it on the first try, it was incredible.
- You're basically just throwing all of your momentum
and catching yourself on your back,
so I was really stoked when I did that correctly.
- That really gave me a lot more confidence to like
just go out and try like she did.
And I did it.
- Okay, let's do front bump.
You're going to come into a half handstand,
and just drop.
Turn your face, and you still want impact here,
so slap the mat.
Snap, okay, okay.
Much better.
- They're like okay, we're going to do body slams now.
It's that iconic move where you're thrown upside down
in the air and you land on your back.
- Cut the space, nice, reach to get her, get her.
There it is, how did that feel?
- Much better.
- That looked good too.
Good, try one more.
- A huge high point for me was locking in,
it really made me feel like I was in the moment,
and it was really intense.
And you're making eye contact with your opponent.
In that moment I actually felt like I was
doing something correctly and felt like I could own it
and bring in more of a performance element.
It was also really great to go one on one with Michelle,
and be able to do the moves,
perform the moves on each other.
- The coaches were really awesome in breaking things down
and explaining to us how to do it.
I really do feel that if they hadn't pushed me in that way
and encouraged us in that way, I would have never tried
something like anything we did today.
(rock music)
- Each and every week at the performance center,
we hold a promo class, so a presentation skills,
which is a chance for all of our competitors
and athletes and entertainers to get up in front
of their peers and perform a spoken part of the craft
of what we do.
- This is Heidi.
- And this is Billy.
- And we are the reigning.
- Defending.
- Undisputed.
(together) Break out stars of the year.
- Boo shak a loo.
We're dozing you right over.
- Understand that we are heavy machinery.
We run through things, we smash things,
we engage in general destruction.
- I don't care if I have to scratch and claw
my way up to the top.
If I have to burn this division to the ground,
I will do that.
- Presentation and character is just as important
as the in ring training.
And Michelle and Sydnee are going to have the opportunity
to take a promo class here at the performance center,
and walk down this very ramp.
- We like to put them in the position
of being put in the spot.
So with Sydnee and Michelle in class,
we want to give them a chance to observe
what our superstars do, see what it's like to portray
a character in a larger than life manner,
and then we're going to ask Sydnee and Michelle
to stand up here on this ramp and show us what they got.
And even if it's as simple as just giving us some background
of who you are and what you're all about.
Knowing who you are as a person,
so we can help give you some guidance, give you some tips,
give you some feedback to create that character.
- Hi, I'm Michelle, I'm new here.
Oh yeah, let's just train, let's have fun,
let's get serious, and I thought it was just contained
to the training, and let's just say,
sometimes rookies win.
(applause)
- I think that opening part where you came through
with the playful fun, that part comes off as inauthentic.
Alright, this girl's playing a bad guy type character.
What we do, I don't know that our audience
would resonate that to a happy hey.
- I was just more nervous.
- It's going to be, who's this chick to come in here
and try to play a wrestler, so.
- I liked the element of being the rookie.
I think that's a character element of like
unexpected strength.
- Hi, I'm Sydnee, and I am super new to this.
Yesterday, I was thinking about it,
and I saw the future, and the future is me.
(applause)
- I think you have a little less confidence.
When you believe in yourself, a lot of those things
do correct themselves.
And I think you're nervous, it's new,
and I think we can do a few more reps over these next
few days, get you a little more comfortable.
- Right on, I have my starting ground.
I am known to make sassy comments,
so I'm thinking maybe I'll pull more from that side
of my personality and go kind of more rogue
and a little snappy.
- It's incredibly important for everyone
to bring a clearly defined character that has a voice
that can relate to the members of the NXT universe,
the audience, or the WWE universe as a whole.
So we want them to bring that form of entertainment,
mix that with their athleticism, present that
illustrious x factor and exude charisma
to entertain the masses.
(rock music)
- Naomi, this is Sydnee and Michelle.
- [Naomi] Hi ladies.
- [Charlotte] She's the two time women's smackdown champion.
- So ladies, tell me a little bit about your characters
and what you've been working on so far.
- I put a lot of thought into the higher points
of when I did my promo, which was I see the future,
and the future is me, so I'm kind of playing off
of that and going for a fortune teller enchantress vibe.
- In my promo, I talked about being a rookie,
and how no one knows about me right now,
but everyone will soon.
And one thing I started thinking about was like
natural disasters that just kind of break out
out of no where like once in a lifetime.
- I think it's so awesome that you guys have
like backstories to these characters
and you put so much thought into it.
So are you ready to show me what you got?
- Yeah.
- Once in a lifetime something happens that shakes
the earth to its core.
A crisis, hunger, a war, or even something delivered
from mother nature herself, a storm.
Something so unexpected, no one can predict it.
Keep an ear to the ground and an eye to the sky
because this storm is coming.
- Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the greatest of them all?
Why yes of course, it's me.
Prophecy, now I know I might be new at this,
but I was made for this, I was born for this.
I can see into the future, and that future is me.
(applause)
- Yes.
- How did you guys get so good so fast at these promos?
I am so proud of you guys, how much you picked up
and learned in such a short period of time.
And I can really tell that you guys have worked hard
on it, and that you're really feeling what you're doing.
- You guys were able to find a character
that was believable.
Your confidence and presence was awesome.
- The promo class with Charlotte and Naomi
was such a fantastic way to end our amazing week
here at the WWE Performance Center.
When I came into this challenge, I anticipated
for it to be primarily physical, and it truly was
incredibly physical, but I didn't realize how much fun
and how big creating and playing a character would be.
- This experience has been insane,
from being pushed as far as I could,
both mentally and physically,
doing our first session in the ring and coming out
and feeling like I had gotten hit by a truck,
coming back into the ring and continuing to push myself,
using muscles that I just have never used before.
- I have the most respect for these athletes.
And they are incredible athletes and performers.
- Thank you to WWE Performance Center and NXT
for opening their doors to us
and just allowing us to have this experience
to see what it really takes to be a WWE superstar.
(rock music)