A loaded past several years for Boudreaux.
Over the last several years, Parker Boudreaux has been under contract to WWE and All Elite Wrestling. He was featured on television in both companies.
Boudreaux is now an independent talent and he’s ventured into AAA and is working dates for GLEAT in Japan. He looked back at the recent stretch of his career while chatting with Cultaholic. Boudreaux feels blessed to have had opportunities in WWE and AEW, but feels he did not get a chance to show what he could do like he’s currently doing with GLEAT.
I feel the same way (that I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I can do) and I’m very blessed to be in the WWE, AEW. Even in those promotions, organizations, I feel like I never had a chance to show a 20-minute match in the ring, a 25-minute match in the — kind of like what I’m about to do in Japan. I’ve had a 25-minute match for the World Championship Title for GLEAT against their champion Hayato Tamura and that was something I’m so grateful for because a lot of people don’t think or maybe don’t know that I could wrestle for 25 minutes in Japan in Osaka. Because I’ve never had a chance to go 20 minutes in the ring or put on these bigger matches and you know what I mean? So I’m very grateful to be going to Japan and really showing everyone that I could really go anywhere worldwide.
Diving into those runs, he felt everything had been going great in both WWE and AEW before his respective exits. Specifically on the AEW front, he had a great time there, but felt things got ‘weird’ as it relates to how the Mogul Affiliates (Swerve Strickland, Rick Ross, Parker Boudreaux & Trench) played out. All in all, Boudreaux stated that he has nothing but positive remarks about both places.
Man, for me, honestly, for the most part, I thought I was doing everything right (during my NXT run) because I was paired up with Joe Gacy then they were putting me on TV every Tuesday, then I had a match every Tuesday and I think the last thing we did was kidnap Bronson’s dad (Rick Steiner) on TV and we did that whole thing so, in my mind, I thought everything was almost going well in my aspect of it because, you know, going to the P.C., training every day, putting in the work in the weight room, film work, the classes, everything else. For me, I thought everything was going great. I had a great time at NXT. It’s some great coaches that still kind of keep in contact with me today so, very blessed to be there for the time I was and then same with AEW. Had a great time with them. Just a weird situation there as well because we were getting pushed with Swerve (Strickland) and Trench and Trench got hurt and then, two weeks later I got hurt with a sprained wrist so I was out for like two weeks so it was just a weird situation there but, extremely grateful. Have all the best memories with both companies and have nothing bad to say for sure for any company especially.
He was released from WWE in April 2022. Parker shared that he was blindsided by it and reiterated that he thought things were going well. In NXT, he was known as ‘Harland.’
For sure (it was a surprise that I was let go from WWE). That’s probably the most blindsiding thing that I’ve experienced in the wrestling world for sure because for the most part, I thought I was doing everything right. Showing up, putting in the work every day and they’re pushing me on TV with the promos and then they’re pushing me on TV with the matches. I was traveling for dark matches for Raw and seeing how it is backstage. I had a — I think it was like a live P.C. match or something or just some type of ring session and I got back to the apartment and just got the call from Johnny Laurinaitis and that’s how it went down so, I was definitely for sure surprised in every way. I was in the main storyline. For me, it was just super surprising but, I know that’s how business works, I know how things are and I don’t think I knew that at the time. I was so, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe –’ you know what I mean? But I know the business now and I see how it is sometimes… For sure I was frustrated, just because obviously, I wanted to be in the WWE and I wanted to put on that character that they wanted me to be and I felt like I was doing my best at portraying that character outside of the ring, inside of the ring, on social media, and I wish it was something, like, they could give me something I could do a lot better or maybe something that would give me a clue of maybe, hey man, you need to work on this and this before you get released… But I know that’s how the wrestling world works sometimes. Yeah man, I understand how it goes.
Circling back to AEW, after Mogul Affiliates, Boudreaux became a member of The Trustbusters with Ari Daivari, Slim J, Sonny Kiss and VSK.
He called each member a great human being and then heaped praise onto Slim J for passing knowledge onto him.
Shout out to The Trustbusters. The great human beings. Sonny (Kiss), great human being. Slim J, man, Slim J, what a real one. He was teaching me a lot, especially with the short time we had. We would watch so much more film together and he would go in the ring with me before the matches and we would walk through new stuff, he would show me new stuff and you know what I mean? Because I’m still learning. I’m still learning to this day. I’m only three, three and a half years in and at that time, I was only two, two and a half years in and he was showing me just stuff that he knew because he’s been doing it for 20 years and shout out to Slim J. He’s a really, really great human being. I miss that dude for sure. The Trustbusters though, shout out to The Trustbusters. It was a great time for sure. It was a great time.
Next up on the docket for Boudreaux is he’ll be heading back to Japan for GLEAT’s November 10th event. He is also scheduled for their 11/13 show.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Cultaholic with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
