Ridge Holland looked back with humor on being placed alongside Sheamus right after his call-up from NXT to WWE‘s main roster in 2021.
The wrestler, now going by Luke Menzies, was selected by SmackDown in that year’s Draft and quickly paired with Sheamus.
Speaking with Simon Miller on Under The Mat, Menzies joked that early in the partnership, his main job was simply standing next to Sheamus and holding back Pete Dunne, who was going by Butch at the time.
“They obviously saw my work just standing there in the car park before I walked in the building and thought ‘I need a guy who can just stand behind me and do absolutely fuck all’, and went ‘that’s my guy’.”
“I got paid for just standing behind, maybe holding Pete back a few times.”
The partnership grew into something much bigger with the formation of The Brawling Brutes. The trio defeated Imperium in a Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook Match at Extreme Rules 2022, and months later competed in the main roster’s first men’s WarGames match, teaming with Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens against The Bloodline.
Interestingly, Menzies also recently admitted that his call-up came at a difficult point in his career.