Samuels discussed his friendship with Noam Dar as well.
Earlier this year, Sha Samuels, Rampage Brown and James Mason guest coached at the WWE Performance Center. They traveled from the U.K. to Orlando, Florida and spent three weeks there.
Sha opened up about the experience during his appearance on a Wrestling With Johners livestream. Samuels called it a new lease on life and added that he produced matches for NXT Level Up.
Obviously, NXT U.K. closed down and stuff and I was thinking, what’s gonna happen? I got a message in December about probably going over as a guest coach with James Mason and Rampage Brown and I’ve never coached before. I’ve done odd seminars here and there, but it’s never been me. I’ve always been a talent. So when I was originally offered, for about 30 seconds like, ah! I’m a talent. My career’s over. But, I went over there and honestly, new lease on life. Getting to go over there and coach people was so rewarding. Not only coach people but, they let us be producers. We produced NXT Level Up, a few matches and getting that level of faith put — it’s such a different thing… You’re relearning yourself because you’re saying all this stuff, but the longer you speak, you’re reminding yourself. It’s so good.
While at NXT events, he reunited with his longtime friend, NXT Heritage Cup Champion, Noam Dar. Sha reflected on him and Dar’s pairing in NXT UK. He says it helped him get out of his comfort zone.
Samuels would go on to detail the origins of his friendship with Dar. It kick-started when they were both on season two of TNA British Boot Camp. They were eliminated and bonded over how badly they wanted the opportunity.
Thankfully, he’s (Noam Dar) one of my best mates so, we just got to have some banter with each other and it played off well on-screen (in NXT UK). I will say this, what was good about the Noam Dar thing, it also pushed me to get out my comfort zone. You gotta think about it. I was just a big heel. Rah! Sha Samuels but when I was with him, I tried to play a different side. So I tried to play like a bit of a Laura Hardy situation for a lack of a better term. I was the big goof who’s trying to scheme things and he was the big star. So I changed my gimmick up. They end up giving me like a bookie gimmick, right? Which is again, out of my comfort zone. Like, here’s a new gimmick. Something like, you’re a bookmaker. I was his cornerman in Heritage Cups. Then I started having a phone, placing bets and then next thing you know, I got a new gimmick, a new persona and it was all new but, because I was in the WWE and learning from them, I felt I could get out of my comfort zone, try these things. So much fun.
We really bonded at British Boot Camp, IMPACT British Boot Camp. So, we both didn’t get to go through, right? And I thought we were two of the standouts, two of the best people on that show. But obviously they had their guys of who they wanted to look at and who were more marketable for them and their show. But for us, it was… like a first big disappointment in wrestling for both of us and I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this. We both got knocked out, we both cried. We both cried. Samoa Joe, Al Snow, Gail Kim tell us we’re not going through. He started crying. Because he started crying, I started crying and we bonded through that I think… But yeah, that’s how we became close.
During the Q&A portion of the livestream, it was suggested by a chat user that because of Samuels’ close friendship with Dar, he should join The Meta-Four (Noam Dar, Jakara Jackson, Oro Mensah & Lash Legend) in NXT.
Samuels said ‘you never know’ and he hopes something like that could happen. He feels that him and Noam did not get to scratch the surface of what they could do together on-screen.
Maybe, you never know, you never know (if I could join Noam Dar in The Meta-Four). Maybe one day. I will say this, me and Noam, I think there’s still plenty of opportunity for stuff. I feel like we didn’t scratch the surface. I thought as we were just finding our feet, as a team, as a part of a TV show, I thought we were just getting started so hopefully that’s something that could happen in the future. You never know.
Samuels is continuing to coach. He is one of the trainers at RevPro’s London School Of Wrestling. The 38-year-old Samuels was most recently in action on 10/8 when he went one-on-one with RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Michael Oku.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Wrestling With Johners with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
