Elijah Burke turned down an opportunity to join the Spirit Squad faction during his time in WWE.
Speaking on a recent edition of “The Ten Count” podcast, the former WWE Superstar commented on turning down an offer to be a part of the WWE stable featuring male cheerleaders.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On turning down the chance to join the group: “I always think long term, not just short term, ‘Hey look, I’m on TV and I’m with the chairman. ‘ Nah, I just didn’t feel it,” he said, “It was not me, and more importantly, I wasn’t going to go out there and be the token black guy. It’s always got to be one; I wasn’t going to be that in that group.”
On how he expects it might have gone: “I got natural hair. I probably would have been asked to put, you know, either wearing my afro all the time. Not saying they would have, but I could certainly have seen it. ‘I’m a cheerleader; hey, let’s put some afro puffs in your head,’ you know.”
On Dolph Ziggler managing to get past the group’s infamy and become a star:
“Ziggler went, and he put in the work, and he was able to remove that stench of the Spirit Squad that ultimately became a joke.”