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Former WWE Superstar Ricardo Rodriguez has explained how The Devil's Advocate starring Al Pacino influenced the FCW faction — The Ascension.
The WWE version of The Ascension comprised Konnor and Viktor. But the FCW version of The Ascension, led by Ricardo Rodriguez, featured Kenneth Cameron, Conor O'Brian, Tito Colon, and Raquel Diaz. Their faction was influenced by the movie — The Devil's Advocate.
Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda Wrestling, Rodriguez stated the following:
"When I created The Ascension, The Ascension to me came out of watching The Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino. Cuz that's how I used to do my promos in FCW. That's how I pitched it to Dusty. I would do these promos and I would act like how Pacino was in Devil's Advocate with Keanu Reeves." (2:48-3:05)
Rodriguez even confirmed the same when Sportskeeda Wrestling's social media team uploaded it before this busy writer could get this article in.
To check out the entire interview with Rodriguez, do click on the link below:
Several FCW competitors who became WWE megastars were influenced by names outside the wrestling business
In the very same interview, Rodriguez informed us how Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar influenced Alberto Del Rio:
"I remember Alberto used to watch Scarface non-stop on his portable DVD player or anything with Pablo Escobar. He would watch stuff like that just to kind of get ideas and stuff. So yeah, a lot of us would get concepts or ideas of how to use certain things by watching other characters." (3:06-3:29)
Bray Wyatt, understandably, was far more eclectic. The former WWE megastar was influenced by the father of the atomic bomb — Robert Oppenheimer:
"We had this big discussion about this guy named Robert Oppenheimer," said Rodriguez. "Robert Oppenheimer was the creator of the atom bomb. And then we discussed the very famous clip that is on YouTube, his interview that he did after they did the tests. When he was basically regretting doing it, he said I'm the destroyer of worlds in that interview. It's really creepy." (1:58-2:23)
Do you know of other pro wrestling stars with interesting influences? List them in the comments below.
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