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What's the story?
WWE released a video of NXT stars showing off their squat skills for 'Squatober', a month-long celebration of exercise and squatting. The video had new NXT stars Steve Cutler and Cesar Bononi, as well as NXT Superstar, Eric Bugenhagen, kicking off the month of Squatober in the training centre.
In case you didn't know....
Eric Bugenhagen was a collegiate wrestler and powerlifter, who joined the WWE Performance Centre earlier this year. He was signed after a successful tryout in February of this year.
Bugenhagen had made a good first impression at NXT near the end of August where he gave an extremely intense interview about training and exercising.
The heart of the matter
The video shows the NXT stars do some huge and intense squats under the guidance of WWE Strength and Conditioning Coach Sean Hayes. The extremely enthusiastic and exuberant Bugenhagen was able to press through a pair of 500-pound box squats, but he was not done. After the squats, he said he would add another five pounds to the bar each day of the month of October to celebrate 'Squatober'.
The other NXT star, Cutler, tried two reps for the 500-pound squats and though he was successful in the first one, he struggled through the second one, before his tag partner, Wesley Blake helped him rack the bar.
Despite not being able to complete the rep, Hayes praised Cutler:
“I’m not that upset with him for the missed rep. That's more than double his body weight in squats, so that's impressive. Once you're in that range, you're in elite status.”
Cutler certainly is strong and this bodes well for his career with the WWE, as his strength will be a major contributing factor to his performances.
What's next?
It will take a lot more training in the performance centre before the new signee 'Bugez' is fit to debut. But by the intensity of his training, he will be more than ready for his debut when it comes, as long as he does not injure himself.
Watch the interview of Eric Bugenhagen at NXT Combine.
Author's take
Bugenhagen has all the enthusiasm in the world as he continues to train in the Performance centre. Going by his exuberance and eagerness to do well, his strength will come in handy when it comes time to debut.
It's too bad that the Hype Bros may break up soon as he would have been the perfect addition to the team adding another level of 'Hype'.
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