Wagner, Ridgeway May Be Coming to a Wrestlemania Near You
Ric Flair had Dusty Rhodes.
Stone Cold had The Rock.
John Cena had Randy Orton.
And if Friday night’s press conference is any indication, Dalton Wagner might have John Ridgeway.
Wagner signed an NIL deal with WWE earlier this week, craftily dubbed “Next In Line” by marketing, and now has an open developmental contract waiting at the end of his college career if he chooses. However, he wasted no time trying to bring Ridgeway along for the ride when he jumped on the Paul Finebaum show on the SEC Network earlier this week.
“He’s big. He’s tough. He’s mean. And I think he loves wrestling as much as I do,” Wagner said while plugging his teammate.
The following day Ridgeway slipped out of the usual demeanor expected of the players during press conferences, and flashed a moment of verbal talent that showed he would be more than capable of working the stick (the microphone for you non-wrestling fans) during an in-ring promo or backstage interview.
“I thought that was cool and I appreciate it, but I think he’s barking up the wrong tree trying to wrestle me,” said Ridgeway, who is a former ameteur wrestler. “...Everybody knows maybe not to wrestle with me, I don’t know. I mean we can try. WWE would be cool. I can John Cena somebody, or Randy Orton somebody. RKO somebody you know.”
Hawg’s Illustrated’s Clay Henry already has a pitch ready for NXT executive Paul Levesque (HHH) for bringing Wagner and Ridgeway in together.
“They’re gonna be the Road Hogs,” Henry said while on air with ESPN Arkansas this past Wednesday. “Ridgeway will have the celebratory dances down pat, he already does. I will be their manager in the back.”
Of course, anyone who has watched WWE knows that, unless you’re part of the New Day, tag teams are made to be broken, which means at some point in time Arkansas fans could pack Jerry World for a Wrestlemania featuring the two squaring off for the first time.
Part of what caught the WWE’s attention was Wagner’s look, which created immediate ties to wrestling legend The Undertaker.
Before Wagner even stepped onto the Arkansas campus with his powerful 6-9 frame and long flowing brown hair, people in Fayetteville immediately started referring to him as The Undertaker, while others on social media commented that he would be a dead ringer to perform as Taker’s son.
Kurt Anderson, the offensive line coach at the time under former head coach Bret Bielema, even promoted the recruitment of Wagner, along with Shane Clenin and Kirby Adcock, as bringing in his own stable of WWE superstars.
"It was awesome," Wagner told Hawgsports.com’s Otis Kirk back in 2016. "It was very cool to see. He has always said me and Shane were the Brothers of Destruction and with Kirby in there we were going to be a whole mess of trouble. I'm excited for it and can't wait to get this thing going."
WWE owner Vince McMahon recently issued a directive for Levesque to switch up the type of talent being brought into NXT, which serves as a developmental brand for WWE, creating what is now known as NXT 2.0. The goal is to adhere to McMahon’s preference for larger, less polished wrestling entertainers waiting to be molded, who can be believed as powerful forces that could take a world championship from anyone.
The description of Wagner given by Anderson to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Bob Holt in 2017 sums up McMahon’s vision of the perfect wrestling prospect perfectly.
"He looks like those 6-6 tackles that are put together the way you want, except he's just a bigger version of them, which is kind of unheard of,” Anderson said.”He's a monster of a man and he's got really good feet. He's also a very, very smart guy.
“He was physical,” Anderson later added. “When he gets his hands on you, he's going to maul you.”
Despite constantly being tied to the WWE for much of his high school and college playing career, it wasn’t until the perfect alignment of the change in vision at NXT and the emergence of NIL deals that such a moment even became possible.
“It was one of the coolest things I think I have ever experienced,” Wagner explained to Peter Burns on the SEC Network. “I, like a lot of people, grew up watching WWE all the time. They one day reached out to me on Instagram after NIL passed. They were like, ‘Hey, we’re really looking forward to pursuing an NIL deal with you guys. Let’s make it a big push in this and we want to make a big announcement and we’d really like to get you on board.’
“What do you say to that? Of course, yes, whatever you want me to do.”
Tampa Bay, which is where Wagner and Ridgeway will take on Penn State in the Outback Bowl, is famous for being home to numerous professional wrestlers. Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage got the Tampa ball rolling back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and John Cena brought even more attention when he, and former girlfriend Nikki Bella, filmed numerous segments of the WWE reality show “Total Bellas” with Bella’s sister and tag team partner Brie, along with Brie’s husband Bryan Danielson (known to WWE fans as Danield Bryan.
The WWE Performance Center, where WWE wrestlers are physically trained, and Full Sail University, where Levesque and former WWE superstar Shawn Michaels help train wrestlers on promos, how to play to the cameras, and produce NXT, is about 80 miles from Tampa. It will be where Wagner will spend much of his time taking advantage of what the NIL deal has to offer.
“It’s essentially just a gateway to show you the world beyond your sport,” Wagner told Burns. “The way it was explained to me is it’s a recruiting kind of deal. They’ll take you down to the Performance Center. They’ll show you around to all your stuff. They’ll show you different venues and places where you get to go to work. After that, you’ll do some social media promotions to help you out with engaging followers and such. At the very end of your contract, you have the option either go to the professional sport of your choice or get an open contract with WWE with the possibility to sign with them.”
As for dream matches, Ridgeway doesn’t make the cut for Wagner. That honor goes to current WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
“As much as I love the guy, it would be really awesome to have a battle against him,” Wagner said. “He does awesome stuff for the wrestling world, but it would be a cool match-up, especially since he was the one who took out the Undertaker.”
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