Former WWE superstar Tony Nese has taken to his Twitter account to clarify his recent comments regarding WWE not wanting to employ him because he was “Short and White.”
Replying to an article posted regarding his comments, Nese had this to say:
“Ugh….before this gets out of hand. It was referring to how I didn’t have a unique background. Just a kid from Long Island who wanted to be a wrestler. But my overcoming of that by proving to them I’m worth a shot became my unique story.”
He would also explain further, stating that he did in fact say those words, but he wanted to, “clarify their meaning.”
You can read the comments Tony Nese initially made below:
“At the beginning of all this, I did a tryout at NXT and through the tryout, I actually got told about the Cruiserweight Classic that they were looking to do, and it was actually a funny conversation, It was, ‘Hey listen, we really enjoy your work out there and your look and everything. You’re probably never gonna work for this company but, we are doing a tournament and we’re trying to use cruiserweights all around the world and stuff like that and your name is in the hat for that’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I should be happy about that or not. Pretty much just told me I’m not gonna get a job here,’ and this was like in the middle of my tryout…
“So now I had what? I had two days in the tryout, already in my head going, ‘Okay, I’m not getting a job here. I gotta — whatever. I’m still gonna bust my ass and show ‘em what I got.’ So I actually, I asked them — I don’t know if I’m gonna get in trouble for this one or whatever but, I was like, ‘Listen, the cruiserweight thing sounds great but why would you say you don’t think I’ll ever work here?’ And the answer was straightforward, ‘You’re short and white. That’s not what we’re looking for right now.’ But anyways, it was kind of like a, ‘Hey listen, you know, you’re not six-foot-something, you don’t have an interesting background when the company’s trying to reach in different countries and everything.’ You know, so it made sense. I actually, believe it or not, like that. I like that he just straight up said this is why and rather than someone dancing around, ‘Well, you know, maybe not right now,’ whatever it is. I hate that more than anything. Just tell me.”
Tony Nese was one of many WWE superstars that were released in the latest round of talent cuts.