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Soleil will take to the skies on Saturday night during Awesome Championship Wrestling’s (ACW) Indypendence Day in a tag team match with Dante Casanova as they look to get one over on the duo known as The Righteous.
Sidney Akeem, the former WWE star, is the man behind the mask. It will be his first appearance in ACW since 2025 at Mischief Night, when he took on Casanova and AJZ in a triple-threat match. Casanova was the winner of that match and now teams with Soleil.
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Soleil in an ACW ring. (Jay Adam Photography)
He told Pakinomist Digital that he was excited to have the opportunity to take on Vincent and Dutch as they have developed as one of the top tag teams across pro wrestling, primarily competing in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on Thursday nights.
“I wouldn’t say there are any nerves. I’ve been in the ring with a lot of great talent in my career,” he said. “It’s my first time messing with The Righteous and I’m excited. In fact, I spoke to the brothers not too long ago and told them how much I enjoy their work and so it’s going to be fun sharing the stage with them in the ring.
“It’s going to be different because me and Dante Casanova, you know, this came together out of the blue, but I think we’re two guys that are done proving to ourselves that we belong in this wrestling world, the ACW locker room. I think we’ve more than proven that we belong. I think right now it’s about making a statement. Making a statement and making an impact on the team and hopefully this tag team division.”
The ability to wear the mask again is an important part for Soleil.
He said he has been working on the character for several years and tried to introduce it in WWE, but it never took off. He was known as Scrypts and Reggie during his time with the company.
Soleil does a flip in Awesome Championship Wrestling. (Jay Adam Photography)
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“Yeah, I mean, this is the new me, and this is the real me, too,” he explained to Pakinomist Digital. “Everybody knows Sidney Akeem, former WWE superstar Reggie, NXT star Scrypts, and you know I never really found my footing in who I really am when I was in WWE, and then when I came to the indies, I had a great run as Sidney Akeem, but something was missing. Something was missing, not only from myself, but that connection with the fans all over the world, and then I’ve helped create this character all over the world. That’s almost to say six years and it never came together because it just wasn’t the right time and in NXT it was what I wanted Scrypts to be but it was too many cooks in the kitchen I debuted this at Ring of Honor but the real debut for Soleil with the music the jumbotron was all at ACW.
“So the fact that I debuted this character, the real me, and on ACW. I think it’s only fitting to move forward. You might want to see Sidney Akeem again. But it’s Soleil because that’s what I stand for and what it means to not only myself but so many people around the world. This is a sign of courage to break the barriers in the boxes where they were allowed to hold up in a place where I tried to hold. be a superhero. You weren’t allowed to be your true self, so you put on these masks to be other people. Well, this mask is put on to show you who I really am.
Soleil said he wants to express to the audience that it was OK to express who you are as a person. You can be a superhero and fly through the air like he can.
“The world of wrestling is big and you can try to target a certain group of people or you can try to target everybody. I found out who I want to be a symbol for and it’s so many kids around the world who not only look like me but are going through or went through things that I’ve been through in my life and letting them know that it’s OK to unlock your inner superhero,” he said. “It’s OK to dream big and sometimes a little crazy and outlandish because the world will say no to us. People will say no.
Soleil enters the ring. (Smoothlenz photograph)
“And Soleil is me saying yes to everybody. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what you’ve done before or what your reputation might be. There’s a superhero inside of everybody. And I want people to understand that I don’t just put on a mask as a gimmick. I put on a mask because this is really who I am, that I’m closest to life. superheroes that we have for all the things that we do, and I said that I’m not in the circus anymore and that wrestling started in the circus.
Even as a superhero character, Soleil wasn’t exactly required to have one tag team behind him, who previously had a dangerous experience with The Righteous
At Reckoning in May, The Righteous came out of the back and handcuffed Hale Collins in the cage as Vik Dalishus took a beating from Sent 2 Slaughter’s Danny Maff and Shawn Donovan.
The Now and Send 2 Slaughter will be on opposite sides of the ring again on Saturday as they take part in a lumberjack match between Tommy Dreamer and Josh Shernoff.
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“I’m also on my own journey, and I understand that Dante has now entered my world, my journey. We’ll just have to see how the cards are dealt, because I can’t tell you right now that yes, I want this person or that person’s back,” Soleil told Pakinomist Digital. “We, no matter how convinced we are, we’ve got a big job ahead of us. The fair ones, they’re not walkovers. We go into this fight believing we can win, but we can’t go into it half-heartedly and not focus and think, oh, this is just a piece of cake because it’s obviously not one of the best that we have in the business that we’re going to have in this business. Cross when we get there.”
Indypendence Day will take place at the MJN Center on Saturday in Poughkeepsie, New York.
