Former NXT wrestler CJ Parker, now known as Juice Robinson, has signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW has since confirmed he’s signed a full-time contract with the organization.
Robinson was part of WWE’s developmental system from 2011 until earlier this year, when he asked for his release.
He posted the following on Instagram announcing the signing:
https://instagram.com/p/8sFhN6zUOA/
– Brie Bella has been hinting on social media that she will be winning the Divas Battle Royal on RAW next Monday and will be challenging her sister, Nikki Bella, for the WWE Divas Championship.
– Seth Rollins, who headed out for WWE’s tour of Europe on Tuesday, tweeted the following:
Put @WWENeville in his place. Put @RandyOrton in his place. Now about to put the entire continent of Europe in its place. #undisputedfuture
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) April 7, 2015
– The following matches were taped on February 18th in Winter Park, Florida for tonight’s edition of NXT on the WWE Network:
– Solomon Crowe vs. CJ Parker
– Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. Shoot Nation (Sawyer Fulton and Angelo Dawkins)
– Blue Pants vs. Dana Brooke
– Sami Zayn vs. Rhyno
Former NXT star CJ Parker, who requested and received his release from WWE last week, recently spoke with Gary Mehaffy of F4WOnline.com about his departure from the company. Below are highlights of the interview, which you can listen to in full above.
On what the WrestleMania experience is like: “It’s incredible! It’s not only just Sunday, it’s the entire week from Thursday to Sunday. They take over the entire town! Everywhere you look there’s John Cena there, there’s a WrestleMania 31 logo there – it’s incredible. And then the fans! You’ve got 80,000 fans that come from all over the world and it’s all anybody is talking about that weekend!…It makes you really proud to be a part of pro wrestling.”
On taking part in Axxess during WrestleMania week: “Being part of Axxess is so cool. There were some of those days we wrestled 5 or 6 times! You get to meet fans from all over the world….Sometimes you forget how big NXT is and how it covers the whole world. People from all over know who you are!”
On getting signed by WWE: “They hire based on giving people opportunities and signing people with potential…..I was doing TV shots for them when I was 19 or 20. I would go to the All-State in Chicago and handle myself like a good young kid – I was happy to be there! They would always call me because I wouldn’t be a fan boy – I wasn’t a headache! Tell me when to be there and I’ll be there – thought I’ll eat a lot of catering!….Out on the indys I wrestled Lenny Lane – we were having 20/25 minute matches. He called his buddy Norman Smiley….basically what Lenny told him was that I was a young kid with lots of potential and before he gets any bad habits you should get him in the system. Norman agreed and there was a try-out – it was, like, $1000 – I ended up getting the money for that and the rest is history!”
On his thoughts on leaving NXT: “I want people to know that I’m not negative at all. Maybe I was a little frustrated but I wasn’t negative towards WWE. I love WWE, and I always will! But I felt as a performer – as a pro wrestler – if I didn’t pull myself away (from NXT) and go out and get more experiences and more exposure and more (of) all those things that I think I might have trapped myself in a hole as being the guy out there that puts everybody over in 5 minutes. That’s not why I got into pro wrestling. I’m not a guy who’s just happy to be there (WWE). I’m not a guy who’s like “Well, I’m an NXT Superstar – hell yeah – give me some free drinks at the bar!” That’s not me. I wanna be on that team, but I wanna be batting third and hitting RBI’s every night. I wanna be a go to guy that they can count on…..There’s more in me that what I was doing, and I felt like the only way that I could show them that is maybe leave for a while and get some experiences and show them that I do have star potential. It was a really tough choice…..”
On becoming a wrestler: “(I said) to my buddy Roger (at the IWA show): ”These guys aren’t much bigger than us! I think I could do this”. I think I talked to Ian that night – I was 15 or 16. I told him “I want to do this” and he said “Well, you’ve got to be 18.” (So I decided) I’m gonna do college too but I’m going to do this.
As senior year was rounding out I started going to some shows near my house. I met a guy who (laughs) started to train me – kind of! He taught me how to bump and how to hit the ropes. He ran in a town that was really close to my house. Little did I know he just wanted me on the show so I could sell tickets to all of my friends and family!…..I’m so excited to get in the ring once a month and learn how to do a back bump and run the ropes and do a dropkick and a hip toss – and that’s about what he taught me! And then he said I was ready! I wasn’t trained but I sold about 100 tickets to my friends and family!
I realised that wrestling training was supposed to be a full time thing! it was supposed to be 4 hours a day, 4 times a week for, like 12 weeks. I’d been in a ring maybe 3 times and they put me in a match – that wasn’t the way I wanted to learn!….Truth Martini was working for Danny Daniels in AAW at the time, and I eventually spoke to him – and I talked to Danny too – and I said “I’m going to move to Detroit and od this the right way.”
Former NXT star CJ Parker recently spoke with Inside The Ropes Radio regarding his departure from the company, his last day at WrestleMania 31 and more. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
What Led To His WWE Departure:
“It was something that….It wasn’t an overnight decision. I began to feel that I needed to step away from NXT for a while and broaden my horizons and earn my stripes. Get some experience all over the world. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen guys come in who are great friends of mine that have made names for themselves all over the world and then they come to NXT and you name it, the rest is history, they take off they do great things. I wanna say a lot of it is prior to their experience in NXT and I wanna go through that. I wanna live out of a suitcase for a while. I wanna wrestle in front of different types of crowds and try to get over all over the world, start from the ground up. I finally said, I’m 25, if I’m gonna do it, I gotta do it now.
His Final Day With WWE, WrestleMania 31:
“It was a beautiful thing actually, my last day and I watched my best buddy in the world win the World Heavyweight Championship. What a great day. To see him go out and accomplish that and just to know how hard he worked and as long as I’ve known him. I felt good. I was happy. I’m really excited about the future so there was no sadness.”
His Experience Working With Bill DeMott in NXT:
“The one thing about Bill that nobody can argue about is that he was extremely, extremely, extremely passionate about NXT and he was always… you could ride up at 7am, think you were early and he was there. You could think you were leaving late, he was still there. He put everything he had into the Performance Center and he put everything he had into NXT, he helped it get off the ground and he was truly… He was proud to be a coach and that’s all I really wanna touch on.”
– There was some talk during WrestleMania 31 weekend of Leon “Vader” White possibly moving to Florida to help out with up-and-coming NXT talents at the WWE Performance Center. There has also been some talk within WWE of having Goldust work with the NXT guys as well.
– WWE has confirmed the departure of NXT star CJ Parker. They wrote the following on their official website today:
“WWE has come to terms on the release of NXT Superstar CJ Parker, as of today, April 3, 2015. WWE wishes CJ Parker the best in all his future endeavors.”
– CMT announced that WWE Hall Of Famer Steve Austin’s “Broken Skull Challenge” reality show has been picked up for a new season. New episodes of the show are scheduled to premiere on August 2nd. CMT wrote the following:
“Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge (Aug. 2): The ultimate badass competition show returns with host Steve Austin as he brings eight elite athletes to his Broken Skull Ranch to test their strength, stamina and endurance. Each episode sees contestants go head-to-head until the last man or woman standing earns the right to take on the toughest obstacle course in America, the “Skullbuster,” for a chance to win $10,000 in cold, hard cash.”
As reported earlier this week, NXT star CJ Parker parted ways with WWE after being granted his release. The split was amicable as Parker was allowed to work matches at WrestleMania AXXESS on the way out.
Parker was reportedly frustrated as he had spent four years in the company and came to the realization that he was not going to be brought up to the main WWE roster.
WWE told Parker that he would be welcomed back in the company in the future. Parker was said to be well-liked by many within the company and was saying his “goodbyes” at the post-WrestleMania 31 party on Sunday night.
As far as his future is concerned, Parker is going to continue his career as a wrestler, and is looking to get a job working for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
(Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
This week’s episode of NXT on the WWE Network will feature:
Here are some more reactions to NXT star CJ Parker announcing that he’s leaving WWE:
Enzo Amore’s reaction on Instagram
.@WWEMoonChild Our loss is another locker rooms gain. Get ready world. I'll miss you, good brother. #KooKooKaChew ??? pic.twitter.com/ss93TI600u
— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) April 1, 2015
NXT star CJ Parker was released from the company on Saturday.
According to PWInsider.com, Parker requested his release and the parting of ways was said to be on amicable terms. In fact, it was so amicable, WWE allowed Parker to wrestle at WrestleMania AXXESS on Saturday and Sunday to finish out his run with the company.
Parker, who was originally trained by ROH star Truth Martini, signed a developmental deal with WWE in 2011.
Following former NXT head trainer Bill DeMott’s resignation from WWE, additional stories are starting to come out about him.
One in particular has to do with the Kevin Owens vs. CJ Parker match at the NXT Takeover: R Evolution event back in December. The match that we ended up seeing was the one that the three worked out together ahead of time.
Between not liking Owens, the big guy, doing a flip-dive and not working so many moves into the opening match, DeMott reportedly did not like the match.
Prior to the match, Owens reportedly complained to Triple H about what was planned, to which HHH told him to simply let Owens do what he wants.
This apparently led to some issues, as many felt that Triple H allows “his guys” to do whatever they want while the rest of the guys are said to be micro-managed and told not to wrestle the “independent style” of matches that they are used to.
(Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
Kevin Owens is believed to have suffered a broken nose during his debut match against CJ Parker at last night’s NXT TakeOver: R Evolution event. WWE has published video of Owens being checked out after the match.
Parker actually hit Owens so hard that it opened a deep gash on Parker’s hand, which you can see below:
https://twitter.com/WWEMoonChild/status/543240149715267585
– The Tickld website has a new article up regarding Batista’s role as “Drax” in the wildly successful “Guardians of the Galaxy” film. You can check that out at Tickld.com.
– The following matches are confirmed for this Thursday’s edition of NXT TV on the WWE Network, which is the “go-home” show for the September 11th NXT Takeover 2 special.
*The Vaudevillains vs. Sin Cara & Kalisto [Number 1 Contendership For Tag-Titles]
*Charlotte vs. Alexa Bliss [NXT Women’s Championship]
*Tyler Breeze vs. Tye Dillinger
*Tyson Kidd vs. Adam Rose
*Adrian Neville vs. CJ Parker
The following matches were taped at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for tonight’s edition of WWE NXT on the WWE Network:
– Colin Cassady vs. Sylvester Lefort
– Charlotte & Sasha Banks vs. Bayley & Becky Lynch
– CJ Parker vs. an enhancement wrestler
– Sami Zayn vs. Justin Gabriel
– The Undertaker was not at RAW, despite being advertised. Divas Champion AJ Lee was backstage, but did not appear on television.
– NXT stars Aiden English and CJ Parker were also backstage at RAW.
– Security was on high alert at Monday’s WWE RAW from the Allstate Arena in Chicago. While the #HijackRAW movement did not have much of an impact on the broadcast, arena staff was very thorough checking people for weapons when they entered the building and were on the lookout for ‘offensive’ signs.
We have not heard anything about fans being ejected due to their signs, but the building staff took extra precautions due to the #HijackRAW social media campaign.
Aside from those measures, the booking of the show was also done with awareness of the rowdy Chicago crowd that was ultimately not going to get CM Punk. Paul Heyman’s show-opening “pipe bomb”, the The Uso’s tag title win, Dolph Ziggler getting a win and Daniel Bryan standing up to the Authority and getting physical with Triple H were all instances of WWE playing to the crowd more than usual to offset the frustration of Punk not being there.