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Before Jasper Troy received a contract for the WWE NXT mark, he had dreams of dominating between hashmarks instead of between the ropes.
Troy, whose real name is Antoine Frazer, played college football in Northern Iowa before deciding to start his journey into a WWE ring. He told Pakinomist Digital that getting into the business was always dreams for him even back when he picked up the sticks with his friends.
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Jasper Troy won men’s competition on “WWE LFG.” (WWE)
“For me, wrestling was always a dream. I know it’s so hardy, but for me I was really locked in every Monday, every Thursday. Sunday. I wanted to see the little preview-payment-view channel just to catch a glimpse of what payment-per-view would be like,” he said. “For me it asked for the latest ‘Smackdown vs. Raw’ (video games). Going to my friend’s house and that’s what we would play all day and night.”
Troy said football was no longer fun when he competed for Panthers and ended his collegial career.
Eventually, he said there was a point where football was no longer fun. The sport he grew to fell out of advantage with him.
“Me and my brother, we would always talk about fighting together,” he said. “I played football and I was lucky to be successful in playing football, but as (Tyra Mae Steele) said it just came to a point where it wasn’t fun anymore.
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“It stopped dealing with the things that made me love the sport, especially at university level, a D1 level. There were so many more factors that I came from, I was exposed to at the time, but I don’t think I was mature enough to adapt to my surroundings as well as other guys on my team.”
He said there was a time when he had to make a decision on what came next and his heart was put on pro wrestling. He said he had the support of his teachers, but they asked him to finish school first.
“When Covid hit, I just had a chance to look away from football in like a year and really find out what I wanted to do with my life,” he told Pakinomist Digital. “I love football and I could continue to chase this dream and see how far I could really handle it, and I just kept watching more wrestling on my TV under Covid.
“It was all perfect timing for me. As soon as I did my Pro-Day, I had a trial with WWE, and after that I just fell in love and it was. It was the fire I had when I was a kid. It was a whole new experience for me and after that I said, ‘I’m done with football. I’m a full-time WWE superstar.'”
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Troy now has an influence on the NXT program list and joins the rising stars of the Lord Division there.
