When did Apollo Crews find out about WWE call-up?, Crews talks character development, long-term goals, athletic background

Capturing how late in the game WWE finalized NXT roster call-ups, Apollo Crews says he was told about his promotion on the Friday of WrestleMania Weekend before debuting on post-WM32 Raw.

“I didn’t find out until the Friday before that. It was April Fools’s. I thought it was a joke. But when it really hit me and I realized what was going on I just started breaking down crying tears of happiness,” Crews told The State Journal-Register (Ill.) promoting this weekend’s WWE house show tour.

“It was cool for me because I don’t remember the last time I shed a tear of any kind of emotion. So it was cool just to see my dreams come true. … It’s the most satisfying feeling ever.”

Crews said his short-term goal is just being on WWE TV each week, acknowledging that the audience needs to know more about him.

“As far as short-term goals, I think just being on TV on a weekly basis is amazing. Eventually, hopefully, I can show people more of my character and let them know who I really am as a person,” Crews said.

Long-term, Crews said, “I’d love to hold gold here. I definitely see myself holding multiple titles in my career… At the end of the day, I just want to make history here. It’s tough to say that because there’s so much history that has been made, but if I can be a part of that, that’s an honor in itself.”

Crews maintained his positive outlook talking about how he formed his own in-ring style combining his size, physique, and aerial assault that helped him stand out on the independents as Uhaa Nation.

“I took gymnastics as a young kid. Not too long, but I was able to go to diving boards and big trampolines and do all kinds of crazy stuff on them with my brother. It kind of just stayed with me over the years,” Crews said.

“I didn’t want to copy someone’s style; I kind of wanted to make my own. I wanted to bring my athletic gymnastics background into it. I’ve always been an athlete my whole life (participating in soccer, track, amateur wrestling and football), so I just wanted to bring all of that into wrestling.”