In 2012, former WWE superstar Tyler Reks & current superstar Curt Hawkins, debuted a new gimmick which saw the two in a “stripper” esque type of role. There was only one episode of SmackDown which saw the gimmick, but Hawkins joined the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast and relived the moment, spoke on how it came about and Tyler Reks letting him know he quit the WWE.
Hawkins: “Reks and I worked so hard for a year straight; put over everyone on the roster three times over. Finally out of nowhere, (Triple H) pulled us aside and put that stripper gimmick on us which Vince was head over heels about, loved it. I was taking private booty dance shaking classes on my off days. I was sent to it and WWE paid for it. That’s how serious this was. We debuted on Smackdown, then it was SummerSlam 2012 and then we drove to RAW. Reks drove by himself, had some epiphany and quit in the morning.”
“On SmackDown, we were going to do the stripper thing in firefighter stripper costumes. The seamstress lady had told me ‘Hey you got to go get those to get them fitted and we have to do the tear away stuff for it, it’s on the prop truck.’ I say ‘Hey Reks we got to go get those costumes off the prop truck.’ So we walk halfway across the arena to this prop truck, I grab this box of stripper firefighter costumes, he’s like ‘Hey man, I should probably tell you something … I came in this morning and I quit.”
