WWE star Kit Wilson is now adjusting to competing as a singles star on SmackDown after his tag partner Elton Prince was sidelined indefinitely with injury.
Given a repackaging as a new character looking to fight the war on toxic masculinity, Wilson quickly became a firm fan favourite among the fans thanks to his new theme song “Man Up”, which has gone viral on social media and saw the former NXT Tag Team Champion receive a thunderous ovation when SmackDown came to London. On the show, Wilson attacked Matt Cardona following their match the previous week, then continued his entrance.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Wilson spoke about his new song, how much input her had in the process, and which pop stars inspired the key moments:
So I ended up having a fair amount of input. I was pushing for new music when I kind of found out what the situation was going to be and maybe I was going to go solo, I started messaging a lot, saying I would love new music. Can I get new music? Then eventually I got into contact with Neil, I believe, and then he called me. We had little discussion on the phone. He said, What kind of thing are you looking for? So I said, Can I send you an email? Got off the phone, and I started writing this email, just with all my references, with all the songs I like, with all the ideas I had, lyrics, kind of the theme of it, the vibe of it. So I had so much. There’s a Charlie XCX and Bille Eilish song called Guess, and that opens with a phone call. Actually, there’s no phone call, but it opens and it goes, Hey, ‘Bille, are you there?’ That I loved. I really wanted that. So that was my first thing. I wanted a phone call. I wanted to ring, I wanted to pick up. I wanted a Hey Kit, are you there? I originally wanted an English voice, and I still would like to have it with an English voice. We’re American for now, but I think we’ll be okay with that. So that was a big one. We got that. Then there was just so many other influences. There’s another Charlie XCX song called Speed Drive, which I really liked. Jenny from Black Pink has a song called Like Jenny that is very poppy, there’s a lot of girly pop music at the moment, that has come out which is just very catchy. It’s very iconic. It’s very chorus, chorus, chorus, Chappel Roan, Femininomenon, very good song. That was a big one I pushed for. There’s also some Harry Styles influence. 1975 was a big band that I liked, and Pretty Deadly actually used their song on the Indies for a theme, Love Me. There’s kind of a guitar riff in that we used to really like, and I feel like I can kind of hear that in this song. Jade, who’s a UK artist, she used to be in the band Little Mix. So there’s just so many references there. I sent them all. I timestamped the bits that I like, the choruses, I’m always trying to give as much as I can, so as much of me is there. And then they came back. Gave me the first draft. It sounded great. Few tweaks, few tweaks, few tweaks, and I felt like we hit it.
In a previous era of pro wrestling, some stars were strictly tag team wrestlers and forced to sit on the sidelines if their partner was not able to compete. For Wilson, he has been given an opportunity to make it as a singles star, but also admits that it was a struggle to adjust to TV without Elton Prince:
Oh my goodness, God yeah. So the first day I went to SmackDown without Elton, I felt like I was five years old going to school for the first time. Because, again, we are best friends. We met on the independents. We signed together. We’ve done everything together. When we moved over to America, we live together. We talk every day. I love him, and we viewed each other as one person. We never talked to anyone and tried to talk as individuals. It was always about the team. So to do it on my own, I’ve never been more nervous in my life, but he’s been really supportive. We talk all the time. He’s always saying, What have you got? What you’re doing, you’re gonna smash it. He always says, Good job. So it was nice to have his support, but it was so nerve-racking going in, and now I feel like I’m finding my footing and I feel comfortable. It’s kind of fulfilling doing this whole new part of it, but it is scary, and I miss him.
Prince has been sidelined indefinitely after undergoing double fusion beck surgery at the start of the year. When asked how his tag partner is doing, Wilson opened up about Prince’s road to recovery:
“He’s doing good. Surgery happened, and it was nice that he could then talk about the surgery, because he’s quite a private person. He wasn’t really putting anything out there. People didn’t really know. Some people thought it was just this. Some people thought was just that. So it was nice for people to get clarity and understand what was going on. The surgery went well, and so far, it’s been like a week and a half, maybe two weeks. Everything’s on track and good, but it’s just a touch and go situation. It’s the neck. So it’s such a specialist area, that I think we’re just kind of taking it day by day. But he is doing good, which is fantastic. It’s just a scary thing, yeah, and I want to talk about him, but I don’t want to get too sentimental, because I’ll start going.”
Kit Wilson Makes Promise For Pretty Deadly Fans
“The musical is a real thing. We have 10 Songs. We had lyrics. We were learning them. We were trying to it properly and do a proper good job of it.”
When it was brought up that WrestleMania in London could happen one day, Wilson made a promise to the fans that when it happens, fans will finally get to see the debut of Pretty Deadly: The Musical:
“Okay, all right, when WrestleMania is in London. Pretty Deadly The Musical will debut.”
Featured image: WWE
