Candid comments from Ford.
The duo of Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, collectively known as The Street Profits, have been together since 2016. They’ve held the EVOLVE, NXT, Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships and are the second WWE Tag Team Triple Crown Champions.
The topic of them splitting up and competing as singles has been touched on by viewers and even Bianca Belair has spoken in-depth about knowing the heights her husband Montez Ford could reach. There was a comment she made during a media appearance and it had to do with Ford feeling ‘guilty’ when he thinks about becoming a singles talent.
Ford elaborated on that during an extensive chat with Daily Star. He said the only thing he’s done since joining WWE is be part of The Street Profits. Ford feels he has not had the chance to do anything else and if he were to, he feels like he’d be leaving Dawkins behind but recently realized that would not be his fault.
He added that he’ll know when it’s time to go his own route. Ford said that time will come when he feels nothing he’s doing is working and he currently feels close to that point. Ford said he needs to rid of whatever is preventing him from reaching his World Champion-level potential.
Well I think what she (Bianca Belair) was saying or speaking on was when I first came in, came, got signed to NXT or developmental around 2015 and my first match was around 2016 and literally right after that, they put me and Dawks together at the end of 2016 and we debuted in 2017 on NXT TV so this has been the only thing I have done since I’ve been with the company; The Street Profits. I haven’t done anything else. I haven’t done singles stuff, I haven’t done solo stuff and I think what she means is by it’s kind of similar to survivor’s guilt. Been with this person for so long and we built so much, so for me to take off and just do things on my own, it kind of feels like I’m leaving him behind. But, I realized recently, that’s not my fault, and that’s not a knock to him, that’s not a knock to anybody but, I know how talented I am, I know how much I’ve brung to the table for The Street Profits and I know how much I’ve input into The Street Profits to make it what it is today. If I decide to go my way and it’s not with The Street Profits, then whatever happens after that, either does successful or it fails, that’s not on me. Because, me is on me and I think that’s why she said that because like I said, we have such a close-knit relationship and been together for so long and she knows not only just how much I care about him but The Street Profits as a whole but, I’ve been ready ever since I started watching this and I’m not gonna say when the opportunity comes, because you can’t necessarily say when opportunity comes because opportunities are opportunities. You know how this place works. But, I will say that when that day happens…
I would say (I know it’s time to go solo) when everything I’m doing now isn’t working. Feel like I’m on the cusp and the verge of that right now. Like I said, we’ve been together since late 2016, early 2017. We won the EVOLVE, NXT, Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships but right after we lost the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, we haven’t had no success since then. Been the same tag team, we’ve been doing the same things. Have the same passion, actually upped my training to be in the best shape of my life and still no success so now all these questions are popping up in my head like, what I need to get rid of? What I need to add? What do I need to subtract? What am I doing wrong? What do I need to change? And that’s where I’m at now, because I’m not old, but I’m also not young either and these are all the things that are going through my head right now where I’m so fixated on anything in life that I put so much work into it. I don’t see results, I shift. Because insanity is doing the same thing and expecting results. I’m not insane. I’m crazy, but I ain’t insane. So I think that’s the main thing. Right now, just looking at where do I need to be at? And where I need to go and getting rid of the excess fat that is hindering me from being the person I know I can be which is a World Heavyweight Champion, which is a World Champion. I know that, I can say that. Now, there’s no doubt, there’s no unconfidence in that. I know that I’m a World Champion, I’m a World Champion, I know I’m World Heavyweight Champion-material and nobody can take that away from me. But, that time is when I feel — and like I said, it could be on the cusp of that right now. But my frustration has reached its fulfillment or I feel like I’ve closed this chapter where I feel like there’s nothing else to do in this chapter because I’ve tried for every single thing for this to continue to be successful. That’ll be time. Essentially, it’s like how Derek Jeter — I remember I went to an event and he was explaining why when he quit baseball — and I’m not saying I’m quitting wrestling. I’m talking shifting from The Street Profits — and he said, ‘When I literally gave it my all… When I gave it my complete all and there’s nothing else I can give to it, that’s when it’s time to leave’ and that’s how I feel too.
Focusing in on where The Street Profits are currently, Ford feels they’re being overshadowed and nobody is talking about them anymore. He said ‘maybe’ things are the way they are because they continue to fail in their Tag Title matches.
You see all these new faces come in and it’s great that they’re getting opportunities. Great, great, great. Let ‘em in. All these new opportunities, new faces coming in. But it seems like we’re getting overshadowed, and nobody’s talking about us anymore and maybe it’s because of the failures we keep presenting to them. Getting close to the Tag Team Championships but fail. Get right there again, there’s Bloodline, there’s D.I.Y., there’s another one. There’s, oh, now you’re in a four-man group. That stops. Now you’re in a three-person group, but you closer to taking the titles again and no, it doesn’t happen so, now all these thoughts are going through my head where what do the adjustments need to come? Who do I need to add? Who do I need to subtract? Do I need to change my method and approach? All this stuff. All these things are showing up right now so that’s how I feel. It’s a lot but, it was a long answer but, that’s how I feel right now.
To close his remarks on the subject, Ford addressed comments he’s seen that have to do with people thinking he’s afraid to leave Angelo Dawkins. He said that is not the case.
I think one (rumor I’ve seen about myself that I’d like to shut down) is — oh yeah, I did see this one recently… And I think back to what you was asking earlier. They were saying, ‘Montez Ford doesn’t really wanna go solo because he’s afraid of leaving his partner.’ Now, I’m not afraid of anything. I’m not afraid of leaving my partner or anything like that. This is what I’ve been put to do since I’ve been here. I’ve been trying to make the best of this situation, just like anyone in life. What I’m doing in the WWE is no different from what anyone does in life. Whatever cards you’re dealt, you make the best of it. But once you get comfortable, you get success in a certain area, you get confident and you start trying and you want to protrude out and go into other areas that you could possibly be successful in. But I think one thing I’d like to debunk is me being nervous or scared to leave Dawks. It’s not the case. I would change that to: If that time comes for us to be away from each other, I am ready. Can’t speak on anyone else. I am ready, I’ve been ready, still ready, always gonna be ready. Period. So I’ll leave it as that.
Ford and Dawkins are being managed by B-Fab on Friday Night SmackDown. They were in action against Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) on a taped episode of SmackDown that’ll air on 11/1.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Daily Star with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
