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The latest episode of Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast featured an hour-long interview with The Street Profits’ Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford.
In NXT, the athletic duo have been involved in high-profile matches with tag teams including The Undisputed Era and The Forgotten Sons, while their greatest career moment to date came in June 2019 when they won the NXT Tag Team titles in a Fatal 4-Way ladder match at TakeOver: XXV.
On RAW, meanwhile, Dawkins and Ford have not yet competed in an official match for the brand but they have appeared in various backstage segments over the last few months with the likes of Booker T, Ric Flair and Seth Rollins.
In this article, let’s take a look at five things we learned from The Street Profits’ latest podcast appearance.
#5 How Angelo Dawkins felt about NXT stars overtaking him
In previous years, WWE’s up-and-coming Superstars have spent an average of 3-4 years in NXT before moving to RAW and SmackDown.
Alexa Bliss, for example, signed with WWE in May 2013 and became a member of the SmackDown roster in July 2016, while Baron Corbin began his developmental career in August 2012 and debuted on the main roster at WrestleMania 32 in April 2016.
Angelo Dawkins, in contrast, made his televised debut in June 2012 in a losing effort against Sami Zayn and went on to spend the next seven years in NXT, becoming one of the longest-serving Superstars with the brand.
Asked about possible frustrations that he faced during those seven years, Dawkins told Lilian Garcia that he never felt bitter when other Superstars would join NXT and move to the main roster before him (e.g. Finn Balor and Kevin Owens) because he knew that they had more in-ring experience than him.
He added that Booker T told him at the start of his career that his sports background before WWE did not count for much when it came to learning how to be a Superstar, and he understood that people would overtake him during his development.
#4 Montez Ford is a lifelong wrestling fan
Many people have predicted that Montez Ford will go on to become a huge name in WWE one day, with some fans even touting him as a future WWE Champion following his impressive matches and segments in recent months.
Although Ford is one of the most unique performers in modern-day WWE, it cannot be denied that there has been a resemblance to The Rock in some of his energetic promos on RAW.
The 29-year-old even emulated “The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment” in August 2019 at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, where he attempted a People’s Elbow on Bobby Fish before later connecting with a Rock Bottom on the Undisputed Era member.
Speaking about his love of WWE before joining the company, Ford revealed to Lilian Garcia that he is a lifelong wrestling fan and used to play the SmackDown video games when he was younger.
Unsurprisingly, he added that The Rock is one of his idols, but he is yet to meet him.
“I watched it my entire life growing up, so I knew all the legends and everything, announcers, and every SmackDown game from 1 all the way up. The transition, it was easy in the essence of knowing wrestling and watching it, but it was ground zero because now it’s learning how they did all this stuff.”
#3 Angelo Dawkins thought WWE’s interest was a joke
While Montez Ford grew up as a huge wrestling fan, Angelo Dawkins revealed that his mother discouraged him from watching WWE when he was younger.
He then began competing in amateur wrestling, which is when he was spotted by WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco – a talent scout and recruiter for NXT at the time.
Dawkins did not know who Brisco was but found out that he was one of Vince McMahon’s right-hand men. The Street Profits member then had a meeting with the wrestling legend and, after initially thinking that somebody was joking around, he realised that WWE was genuinely interested in him.
Having not watched wrestling for a while, Dawkins familiarised himself with the product and thought he could be good at it.
He added that being able to “talk smack” was one of the key factors in him wanting to become a WWE Superstar.
“What sparked it [interest in wrestling] was honestly the trash-talking. I like talking smack a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I was very scared of the promos when I first got here. For some reason, it took me so long to realise I’ve just got to be like how I am at home in front of the camera.”
#2 Angelo Dawkins cut the ‘worst promo ever’
One of the funniest stories from the Chasing Glory episode came when Angelo Dawkins recalled a moment when he cut a promo in his early days as a developmental talent in NXT.
Even though he enjoyed the trash-talking side of being a sports entertainer, it still took him a while to build his character and learn how to deliver promos.
This showed during his second promo class in NXT when he cut a promo that he still gets reminded of today by some of his fellow Superstars.
“There was a promo that I did, probably my second promo, and a couple of guys like Aiden English and all of them were there. They remember it. People were talking about my head was so big -- they kept calling me ‘Jug’. I did a promo on being called ‘Jug’ and it was possibly the worst promo ever in wrestling history.”
The legendary Dusty Rhodes, who used to hold promo classes for NXT Superstars, told Dawkins that his promo “was so bad it was good”.
Dawkins added that he used to gloat about beating Tyler Breeze on video games when they lived together. Breeze told Dawkins that he needed to show that much enthusiasm and personality in his wrestling character – something he did not have at the time – and he then began to develop his skills as a performer.
#1 How The Street Profits formed
One of the most impressive high-flyers in all of WWE right now, Montez Ford once suffered a concussion after landing awkwardly following a springboard 450 splash.
When he returned to in-ring action, he was booked in a singles match against The Forgotten Sons’ Steve Cutler, while the same card featured another one-on-one match between Angelo Dawkins and No Way Jose.
Behind-the-scenes, Ford revealed that the two men were told that NXT’s decision-makers had plans to put them together in a tag team – something they had never considered before, despite their real-life friendship.
"A couple of people came up to us and were like, ‘I think we’re going to see if we can make you guys work as a tag team’… We were already boys, so we were like, ‘Okay, cool’. We’re fortunate to be in a tag team, especially with somebody you already know.”
Moving forward, Ford said he wants The Street Profits to be known as one of the most adaptable and versatile tag teams of all time, which is why they are happy with their current role as in-ring competitors in NXT and backstage personalities on RAW.
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