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The WWE Network has boasted some interesting content over the past few years and in recent months the company has put out some incredible exclusive content including the newest documentary which covers FCW's impact on the business.
FCW was the training ground for a number of current WWE stars including Charlotte Flair, Seth Rollins, Bayley, Natalya, Tyson Kidd, Sasha Banks, Big E, Heath Slater, Roman Reigns and Xavier Woods. This documentary allowed all these stars to tell their story from beginning to end when Triple H took over and began putting together the brand now known as NXT.
Many of these stars were able to tell their origin stories in WWE and some interesting facts have come out of this documentary, so here are five things that we learned from WWE's latest documentary entitled A Future WWE: The FCW Story.
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#7 Drew McIntyre's WWE debut
Drew McIntyre may be about to main event WrestleMania, but around a decade ago he was another star that was part of the FCW roster. McIntyre was called up to SmackDown very early in his career and as part of this recent documentary, he revealed just how "green" he was when he made his TV debut since he was forced to ask the referee what the hard cam was when the official told him that he had to face it.
It's been a learning curve for the former Champion and he went back to FCW to learn the business after this costly mistake.
"I remember I had Zack Ryder in my first match and on one of my holds the referee told me to face the hard camera which is this camera, (You're not supposed to look into it I'm breaking the fourth wall) erm and I turned to him and said 'what's a hard camera; that's how inexperienced I was on SmackDown."
#6 Seth Rollins was frustrated in FCW
Seth Rollins came to FCW after working in Ring of Honor and was actually Ring of Honor Champion when he received the call. Rollins went to the developmental brand at a time when there were a lot of stars who were just starting out in the business and so he had quite the chip on his shoulder because he saw many stars being called up ahead of them when he thought he was much better.
This obviously caused issues for Rollins because he was only sent to FCW to wait to be called to the main roster but it took quite a while.
"I was having real struggles down in Florida, I was getting ancy to get called up, I was seeing guys get called up ahead of me that were not as good as I was, that hadn't done anything. I got myself in a lot of hot water to the point where, you know, Triple H and I had to sit down and have a conversation about my future."
#7 What was Steve Keirn doing under the ring?
Steve Kerin was the main person behind FCW throughout its run in Tampa, and as part of the recent documentary surrounding the company, Steve was able to reveal who he was and the impact that he had on the WWE throughout his career.
Many fans were not aware that Steve was the "other Doink" and that he made quite the appearance back at WrestleMania 9 when he was forced to remain under the ring for more than five hours in order to make the shock entrance.
"What was I doing under the ring for five hours at Caesars Palace? I thought you know, well, it's not going to be that bad because even though it was outdoors there was a little bit of a breeze blowing, it wasn't too hot, the company was so good to me they put an easy chair under there for me, they put me a nice monitor in there so I could watch the show, I had drinks, I had a can incase I had to use the restroom. I came out and then I had to go back in and that - after that it was downhill because now I had to stay under there till the rest of the matches went on."
#4 "Street Team"
One of the most interesting stories that were revealed as part of the documentary was the fact that FCW didn't have any kind of budget for their shows, which meant that in the buildup to their shows a few stars were chosen and they would be the "Street Team" for that show.
This meant that they would do all of the promotion for the show which included going and putting posters on telephone poles and making sure that all of the promotional images that had been printed were out there for the show. In the above clip, Seth Rollins, Corey Graves, Baron Corbin, and Big E reminised about the times they spent, essentially, vandalizing small towns in Florida.
This was illegal at the time and the superstars revealed that they were told that if they were caught then they were on their own and they would have to pay the fine. There was also a guy called Alfred who went and checked that the posters had been put out and if he found any of them in the trash then they would be forced to go back out and put them wherever they could, even if the whole city was already covered.
#3 WWE stars give their original ideas for names and characters
Every WWE star has an origin story, some stars started outside of WWE whilst others got their start in wrestling at FCW. This means that many of the stars who came through FCW were able to reveal how they got their names and what their original character ideas where when they came through the ranks.
Big E originally wanted to be mailman and used the name he had been called throughout his life before WWE added Langston on. Seth Rollins got his name from Henry Rollins and stated that Dusty Rhodes loved it and saw him as a future star with the name.
Bayley's name was chosen for her, but because it was spelled Bailey she requested that she spelled the name differently because she wanted to represent "The Bay Area" whilst Baron Corbin had 38 names rejected by WWE before the company landed on Baron Corbin, so it was something of a lengthy process for The Lone Wolf when it came to choosing a ring name.
#2 Curt Hawkins origins of his bodyslam
Curt Hawkins was another name who is associated with FCW, but he revealed in the documentary that he decided to head back down to developmental because he wanted to prove his worth to WWE after the storyline with Edge came to an end. Hawkins' return meant that he as one of the stars trained by Norman Smiley. It was during his training that Hawkins revealed that he asked Smiley about his unique bodyslam and he taught him how to do it.
After Hawkins then learned how to do it, he said that Smiley told him that it was his move now.
"This day I was in his class and I got to work with him and I asked him, I said: 'hey man how did you do that bodyslam you used to do?' He used to do this very unique bodyslam where he spun around, slammed the guy, he showed me, I had a couple of tries and I got it and I was getting it down really well and he said, "you know what, you can have that."
#1 Bella Twin hazing
The Bella Twins came to WWE though The Diva Search and were sent to FCW where there were a lot of rumors about the twins including stars believing that they were earning more money than them at the time and that they came from a modeling background which led to a number of issues for Brie and Nikki because the other women in FCW were not very nice to them.
The two women talked about how they were hazed in FCW which included being told the wrong times to arrive at RAW, being told to wear the wrong attire and not being told that there were rules in wrestling which got them a lot of heat in the company at that time.
"I remember there would be some days like: 'what did I get myself into?' Because it was just really really rough.... So I remember when RAW came to Tampa and they wanted everyone backstage, well some of the girls give Brie and I the wrong attire to wear and the wrong time. No one told us about shaking hands, woah, we got heat!"
