David Otunga says WWE brought him to live television before he felt ready to handle every basic in-ring call. During a SmackDown match with Edge, he told the veteran he had never taken a back body drop, and they changed the plan.

Otunga recalled the exchange in a Developmentally Speaking interview with Bryan Asbury. He said he had only recently appeared on FCW television when WWE moved him to the first season of NXT, and his confidence on the microphone was ahead of his ring experience.

“No, I absolutely was not. … I didn’t feel like I was ready for it. … I was still being led through matches … and I wanted to at least be proficient enough where I could call matches on my own. … This is live TV, man, and I take this serious and I want my stuff to look good. I want to be confident in it. … I don’t even really feel like I have a full bag of moves … in my arsenal. I haven’t been doing this long enough. … When people call certain moves, I might not know how to take that. I may have never done that.”

That gap became clear while he was planning the match with Edge and Michael Hayes. Otunga said he warned them about the move before they went to the ring, even though he was embarrassed to admit it.

“I had a match with Edge in the main event on SmackDown. He was trying to call simple stuff. He … called a simple back body drop. I had to tell him, ‘Excuse me, Adam, … I’ve never ever taken one of those.’ … I said, ‘I have seen it done. I will gladly try it out there if you want, but I’ve never taken it. I don’t know how it’ll look.’”

Otunga said Edge and Hayes were surprised but appreciated the warning and used a different spot. Looking back, he said the early call-up was stressful because he preferred to train until he felt fully prepared.

“Him and Michael Hayes look at each other and then they’re like, ‘Wait, you serious?’ … ‘That was very professional for telling. Thank you for that. … We don’t have to do that. We’ll do something else.’ … Edge, he’s one of the greatest of all time, and he’s working with a guy who’s so green who’s never taken a back body drop. I was so embarrassed, but there’s nothing I could do. This is the situation I was in. I was put in a very difficult position.”

Otunga went on to say WWE valued his character and speaking ability while his ring work developed. WrestlingHeadlines has also covered his account of the physical demands of WWE developmental.

Source: David Otunga on Developmentally Speaking. Quotations are from the original video’s YouTube auto-generated transcript.

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