Although mic skills have often been integral in the making of a WWE star, Dexter Lumis went the opposite route with his character.
A man of very few words, the sight of Lumis alone made many wrestlers unnerved when they locked eyes with the former Tag Team Champion. Additionally, Lumis also had the look and mannerisms of a TV serial killer as opposed to the over-the-top personalities seen in pro wrestling.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, it was brought up early in the interview that it might be the first time some fans have heard Lumis speak. The former WWE star joked that he does speak, but his character was the one who did not:
“I sure didn’t. It’s funny because fans come to me, like last weekend at WrestleCon, or this appearance I did in Phoenix. Randoms will come up to me and be like, ‘I loved you on Tacoma FD.’ I’m like, ‘You watched that, so you heard me speak.’ People are blown away by that. I do actually speak, I was playing a character.”
When asked why he didn’t speak, Lumis responded that his goal was to be different and stand out. He also made it his mission to communicate with the fans as much as possible without saying a word:
“I don’t really know why they decided, hey, this is great if he just doesn’t speak. But I had my mentality on it, and I think what I was looking at is everybody talks, almost, in my opinion, too much. So how can I be different? I’m always thinking about that. How can I present myself on TV differently than everybody else to catch the attention of the fans in a different way? So I think it was striking in a way: this guy, he’s just got a cold stare, and he doesn’t speak. Then it became a challenge. Can I elicit emotion from the fans without saying a word? Can I make them feel a certain way? Can I get my emotion that I’m trying to get across to these fans without saying anything? That became kind of the goal, the mission.”
Dexter Lumis Did Speak During Memorable WWE NXT Segment
Prior to his main roster call-up, Lumis had a memorable romance storyline with Indi Hartwell, with the couple being known collectively as InDex. The angle evolved to the point where Lumis and Hartwell had a storyline wedding on one of the first episodes of the 2.0 era of NXT. Simply saying “I do”, Lumis uttered one of his rare lines during his lengthy WWE tenure.
While most wrestling weddings have a habit of ending in disaster, this was one of the few that went off without incident and ended the show on a positive note. Looking back on the segment, Lumis admitted that there were alternative plans, but both he and Indi were happy with how it all played out:
“That’s it. ‘I do.’ That never happens. It could have gone differently. There were ideas that were thrown around that was going to go off way different, but I’m really happy with that 10-minute wedding segment. I still have a little script saved, so does Indi, because it was a very special thing for us. Because how many people can say they were in WWE and they had a wedding on TV that went off without a hitch, or just had a wedding in general? You got to be, I think, perceived a certain way to get that for yourself on a TV that they’re giving you that time on TV because it’s entertaining. We were entertaining enough to pull that off, and we had a connection with the fans, and we had a connection with each other. She would try and break me, man.”
Lumis is now a free agent after being one of the April 2026 WWE releases.
Featured image: WWE
