In the 2023 WWE Draft, former NXT North American Champion Trevor Lee (also known as Cameron Grimes) received his initial call up to WWE’s main roster, specifically to the SmackDown brand. An excited Lee soon started his main roster run off hot, quickly scoring wins over the likes of Baron Corbin and Ashante “Thee” Adonis, and even competing in an invitational for the United States Championship. As the months passed by, though, Lee’s SmackDown appearances became less and less, as he was primarily slotted for dark matches and untelevised WWE live events.
In a recent interview with Instinct Culture’s own Denise Salcedo, Lee opened up about his experience on WWE SmackDown, which ended with his release from the company in April 2024. As Lee points out, the early months of his main roster run came in the midst of somewhat blurry backstage environment, as former WWE CEO Vince McMahon still held creative power following Endeavor’s acquisition of WWE, with WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque seemingly right behind him in the chain of command. Once the merger between WWE and UFC closed under Endeavor, though, reports indicated that Levesque had rose to be the lead creative figure for WWE.
“At the very beginning when I got drafted there, there was still a power struggle happening,” Lee said. “Vince was gone, but he wasn’t gone. [Triple H] was in charge, but he wasn’t fully in charge. What I would know is that I would be on the script, and then it would go to Vince, and he would change the script. I don’t think he really liked NXT guys, so the changes that would always happen would be me being taken off the show. That happened for a couple months until finally Vince was completely gone. Now [Triple H] was in charge, and then it became ‘Well how do we reintroduce this guy who hasn’t been on TV for a few months and hasn’t really done much? How do we reintroduce him back into a show that is so hot at the moment?'”
Fighting For His Spot On WWE’s Main Roster
In the lead up to and after WWE WrestleMania 39, the main storyline of SmackDown centered on The Bloodline, and the history-making title reign of Roman Reigns. Elsewhere, WWE continued to build up the rebranded WWE Women’s Championship, which was held by the likes of Bianca Belair, Asuka, and IYO SKY. At the same time, the brand also spotlighted the scenes surrounding Unified WWE Tag Team Championships as well as the United States Championship. Naturally, this left Lee, and several other talents, with limited opportunities and television time. Nevertheless, Lee fought hard to try and seize them.
“I pitched a bunch of different ideas because it just drove me crazy, honestly,” Lee said. “You’ll hear throughout the business, ‘Oh you’re getting paid, why don’t you just shut up?’ But that’s not what I fell in love with. I wanted to wrestle, so I would annoy the hell out of the writers and try to pitch ideas, try to figure something out. They have a very stressful job as well. The writers are trying to figure out everything and write everything. They’re getting it from every direction, so it doesn’t help when I’m asking to work every single week.
“It was just hard. It’s very hard and it should be. It’s WWE; it’s the top of the top, the best of the best,” Lee continued. “When you’re fighting for a two-hour time slot, you have to get those spots, and when you get them, you got to take full advantage of them. I don’t think that I fully took advantage of the moments that I could have taken advantage. That’s something that ultimately helps the story as well. Now we live in the age where everything is on the internet, everything can be seen. So if someone leaves, you can still follow that person’s story. I’m taking this now as hopefully it’s building my story and helping my true babyface story to where if I get that moment again, I take full advantage of it and people really appreciate it.”
Trevor Lee Is Holding His Head High
Despite his declining television appearances, Lee noted that the support and reassuring words from WWE management and his peers were constant. And while his eventual WWE release was emotional for him, Lee, who once claimed a stock gimmick, later came to understand it from a business perspective. As such, Lee now holds his head high, with the belief that he will one day return to WWE.
“When you’re a business that is whatever multi-billion-dollar conglomeration, you have to make those things where when it comes time to show all the spreadsheets and all the budgets and stuff, you have to make those cuts. When I have nine matches in two years, you have to consolidate that, so I understood that,” Lee said. “Having the stock gimmick helped teach me that helped teach me like how business really works. I was aware that [my release] was going to happen, but everyone was telling me that I was okay and that I was good and I’d be fine, and they were right.
“I do believe that I’m going to be okay and I’m going to be fine; I do believe that I will be back in WWE. You see now all of our top talents, they’re in their mid-40s, to be honest. And I’m talking to you today at 31 years old. I’ve been doing this now going into my 17th year as a professional wrestler. In the past couple years, I’ve been extremely healthy because I haven’t been working. I’ve used that time to get my body better [and] continue to stay healthy so that if it takes 15 years to get that opportunity, my body and mind and everything will be ready for that.”
Watch Denise’s full interview with Trevor Lee below: