Why did Vince McMahon fast-track Reggie to the main roster?

Vince McMahon fast-tracked Reggie to the WWE main roster because of his background as a former Cirque du Soleil acrobat. McMahon loved Akeem's ability to perform acrobatics and flips, leading to his quick debut as Carmella's sommelier without grinding through the traditional Performance Center system first.

How long was Reggie's record-setting 24/7 Championship reign?

Reggie holds the record for the longest single run with the WWE 24/7 Championship, holding the green belt for a whopping 112 days. During this run in the comedy division, he kept the title by performing elaborate acrobatic escapes in parking lots and off trash cans.

What did Reggie pitch to Triple H to save his WWE career?

To save his job after the creative regime changed in July 2022, Reggie pitched a total reboot of his character. He wanted to transition away from comedy by putting on a mask to perform as a serious, high-flying wrestler, a concept that veteran wrestler Rey Mysterio had signed off on.

Who originally signed off on Reggie's masked wrestler reboot pitch?

Legendary WWE superstar Rey Mysterio originally signed off on Reggie's idea to reboot his character. Reggie wanted to wear a mask and transition into a serious high-flyer to match Triple H's new vision for WWE creative before the pitch ultimately fell on deaf ears.

What background did Sidney Akeem have before joining WWE?

Before joining WWE as Reggie, Sidney Akeem worked as a professional acrobat for Cirque du Soleil. His impressive aerial skills and ability to perform flips caught the eye of Vince McMahon, who bypassed developmental rules to immediately showcase him on television.

Why Triple H checked out on Reggie before sending him to NXT

The sommelier who bypassed the line

Remember when the developmental system actually mattered? There was a time when grinding in the Performance Center was the cover charge for getting on television. Then Reginald Bateman rolls up, does a couple of backflips, and suddenly he is poured into a three-piece suit serving fake wine to Carmella on SmackDown.

He bypassed the line completely. If you were a wrestler working in Florida loop gymnasiums for fifty bucks a night, watching this guy debut without ever taking a back bump must have felt like a swift kick to the shins. But Vince McMahon loved the circus. Literally.

Akeem was a former Cirque du Soleil acrobat who could fly. McMahon saw the flips, drooled, and decided this was the guy to lead the comedy division. It led to some of the most hilarious, brain-melting television of the pandemic era. Let's be real: his main roster debut was a Goldberg-speed squash of traditional developmental rules.

He was immediately shoved into the spotlight. He was ducking Sasha Banks, vaulting over R-Truth, and doing handsprings off the ringside barricade. As WrestleTalk reported, his rise was so fast he had a main roster contract before he ever wrestled a match on NXT TV. The crowd loved the spectacle, even if the purists were tearing their hair out. But comedy in wrestling has a shorter shelf life than a pint of milk in July.

The 24/7 title graveyard

Eventually, the Carmella sommelier bit ran its course. The writers did not know what to do with him once the French accent got dropped. So, they dumped him into the 24/7 Championship division, which was essentially creative purgatory. It was the place where wrestlers went to run down corridors in packs like a pack of seagulls chasing a single french fry.

Somehow, Reggie made it watchable. He holds the record for the longest single run with that green belt, keeping it for a whopping 112 days. He was jumping off the stage, escaping through parking lots, and doing corkscrews off of trash cans. He was the king of a very small, very silly hill.

But everyone in the back knew the deal. You cannot build a career on comedy escapes forever. The 24/7 Championship was a joke that WWE had told three thousand times too many. The laugh track had faded. The jokes were flat.

When the regime changed, the writing was on the wall. The comedy division was the first thing heading to the scrapheap. Reggie knew he had to pivot fast before he got swept away with the garbage.

The pitch that fell on deaf ears

Enter Triple H. When the boss retired in July 2022, the game changed overnight. The new head of creative wanted serious wrestling, not wacky parking lot chases. Reggie knew he was on thin ice.

In a recent interview on the Between Two Jobs podcast with Duke Hanson, Akeem detailed his attempt to save his job. He went straight to the top. He wanted to pitch a total reboot. He wanted to put on a mask and do a high-flying, serious character.

He even got Rey Mysterio to sign off on the idea. You would think having the greatest luchador of all time backing your pitch would give you some extra weight. But Triple H was not having it.

As a WrestleTalk report detailed, the meeting was a complete bust. Akeem described the interaction as incredibly one-sided. Triple H looked at him, but his mind was elsewhere.

“It wasn’t… I had a conversation with him trying to rewrite myself because we knew the 24/7 stuff was going down the drain. I’m like ‘I have this idea, this character with the mask and this and that, this and that, Rey Mysterio’s on board and it’d be super cool.’ And he said ‘Alright,’ he’s looking at me as I’m taking to him but he’s not listening.”

The response was a classic corporate brush-off. Triple H looked him in the eye, gave him a polite nod, and zoned out. Akeem could feel the draft in the room.

It is the classic story of the Vince guy meeting the Hunter regime. If you do not fit the vision of a six-foot-two powerhouse who can work a twenty-minute classic, you are already halfway out the door. Reggie was about to get the boot.

Securing the bags and heading south

The shoe dropped quickly. Shortly after the meeting, John Cone sent Reggie a text message. The office wanted to send him back to NXT.

This is where Reggie pulled off an absolute masterclass in survival. Most main roster guys get sent down and their pay gets sliced in half. Reggie, however, kept his main roster money.

He got to stay in Orlando, train at the Performance Center, and collect main roster checks. That is the dream gig. He did not have to travel on the grueling road loop. He just had to show up to the CWC every Tuesday.

But there was a catch. NXT was not the main roster, and the fans there are notoriously brutal on main roster washouts. He was going from Vince McMahon's favorite comedy act to a developmental system that demanded work rate. The honeymoon was over.

The SCRYPTS saga and learning how to work

Then came the repackage. They dressed him up in a mask, gave him a voice filter, and called him SCRYPTS. He was sending spooky messages to the NXT locker room like a theater kid who discovered spray paint. The fans immediately hated it.

It was a terrible gimmick. It looked like a budget version of Sin Cara mixed with a gothic TikTok account. The mask did not cover up the fact that he was still the same guy who did flips for Carmella. The arena echoed with silence every time he did a handspring.

To his credit, Akeem knew he was struggling. He admits he was a gimmick wrestler who did not know the basic psychology of the ring. He had spent his main roster run doing backstage skits and parking lot brawls where psychology did not matter. He was a circus performer trying to play quarterback.

“Did I know how to work? Absolutely not, I was a gimmick wrestler. All my segments were backstage or in in parking lots and occasionally had the gimmick match, where psychology really didn’t matter. But did I learn? Did I understand it? Absolutely.”

He spent his time sitting in Gorilla, watching the producers and the veterans call matches. He was trying to absorb the knowledge. He wanted to understand what the executives wanted. But learning it and doing it are two different things.

In NXT, they expected him to just know it because he had been on Raw and SmackDown. He had the main roster label but the developmental skillset. It was a recipe for disaster.

He turned heel, dropped the mask, and joined the stable OTM alongside Bronco Nima and Lucien Price. Jaida Parker joined them later. The stable had some juice, but Akeem's time was running out. His contract was ticking down.

The indie rebirth of Sidney Akeem

WWE decided not to renew his contract. He walked out the door in June 2024. He was officially a free agent, and the safety net was gone.

But that was the best thing that could have happened to him. He went straight to the indies, wrestling under his real name, Sidney Akeem. He debuted for Game Changer Wrestling on June 29, 2024, at GCW Crime Wave against Ninja Mack. It was a statement match.

He was finally able to apply everything he had watched in Gorilla. The gimmick was gone. The fake accent was gone. The silly scripts were gone. He was just a world-class athlete showing the world he could actually go.

He started putting on bangers. He beat Myron Reed at GCW So High on July 19, 2024. He wrestled Mustafa Ali to a twenty-minute draw at Live Fast, Die Young on August 31, 2024. That draw showed the world he belonged in the ring with the best.

Here is how Akeem spent his first year in GCW rebuilding his reputation match by match:

He debuted with a show-stealing performance against Ninja Mack.
He went toe-to-toe with Mustafa Ali in a grueling twenty-minute draw.
He pushed the champion Effy to the absolute limit in a World Championship challenge.

He traveled to London in January 2025 and beat Aigle Blanc. He made it to the semi-finals of the J-Cup in February 2025, beating Atticus Cogar before losing to Alec Price. He even challenged Effy for the GCW World Championship in March 2025.

Most recently, he flew through the air in the doors, ladders, and chairs match at Spring Break X in April 2026. He did not win the match, but he stole the show. He was doing the flips, but this time they meant something.

Triple H might have checked out during their meeting, but the indie scene is paying close attention. Sidney Akeem is no longer a punchline. He is a wrestler.