WWE RAW commentator Byron Saxton recently appeared on the "Out of Character with Ryan Satin" podcast, where he spoke about a bunch of topics such as what his career was before he worked in pro wrestling. According to Saxton, he used to work in TV news before pursuing a career in pro wrestling.
Byron Saxton said:
“When I was pursuing wrestling before I got signed, I was working in TV news. My mom to this day would probably prefer me to be there. When I told her that I was actually going to try to wrestle for a living, she’s like, ‘Oh, my baby’s gonna get hurt. He’s going to get black eyes. Why can’t you just stay in the nice air conditioning newsroom in the new studio where no one’s gonna hurt you?’ But you have to follow your heart.”
Byron Saxton also spoke about what he was doing before he got into WWE Tough Enough and how he had to do three different things on the independent circuit in Florida and Georgia.
Byron Saxton said:
“I was actually doing work on the independent circuit in Florida and Georgia. So I started in the Indies in 2003. I just started kind of helping out behind the scenes. That turned into me doing interviews, which ended up with me actually wrestling. So I was doing basically three different things. I would help out behind the scenes on the Indies, I would ring announce, and I would wrestle depending on the show. But I always knew obviously the goal was to make it to WWE. I was getting experience and I started sending in tapes. Tough Enough was an example. At the time that I sent in that tape, I was actually working as a production assistant at the new station. I heard about the Tough Enough tryout, so I sent the tape in. This was probably the third time I had sent a tape to the WWE by the time Tough Enough came around. I remember they called me and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we love your audition tape. We want you to come out’, and I’m thinking ‘Yes this is my chance. I finally get to make it to the WWE and live my dream.’ They flew us out to Venice Beach California. A lot of notable names were out there. The Miz was obviously the most popular name that was at that tryout as well as The Boogeyman and Luke Gallows.”
Byron Saxton then spoke about how WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes approached him and offered him to do commentary.
Byron Saxton said:
“That was Dusty Rhodes.” “Dusty approached me and he was like, ‘Hey baby, we want to have you do commentary. We’re going to have you do commentary, we’re going to have you manage a little bit, but I want you to really hone your craft behind the microphone, if you will.'”
You can check out Byron Saxton's full comments at this link. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
