JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – So many in pro wrestling come through athletic backgrounds like amateur wrestling, MMA or football. But for Sidney Akeem (known in WWE as Reggie) the path was certainly unique. He credits going to Circus School and becoming an acrobat.
He said that training literally saved his life.
(He’s on this latest episode of Going Ringside after the interview with Jake Hager. Press play below to watch.)
“I was from St. Louis. I was involved in gangs, drugs, violence. I lost my mom when I was 3. My uncle was shot and killed in my bedroom, and I just followed in my other uncles' and my brothers' footsteps. Gang member or drug dealer,” said Sidney. “Until I found the circus at the age of 11 and it steered me in a different direction.”
Sidney found new life in the circus and with that came a future and hope.
“I was an acrobat for 16 years,” he said. “I got to my dream job Cirque du Soleil.”
He got there by going to an actual Circus College in Montreal.
“A feeder school for Cirque du Soleil,” he said.
And that experience made for a very smooth transition when he arrived in WWE.
“That’s why the transition was so easily able to switch for me because of my acrobatic background,” Sidney said.
His entrance into WWE came because Cirque du Soleil and NXT had an exchange, and he was brought in. Along the way as the character Reggie he spent time on both Smackdown and in NXT.
While on Smackdown his peak was when he held the always entertaining 24/7 Title. If you aren’t familiar, that’s a championship that had to be defended anytime, any place. You could be pinned while out to eat with your family, while sleeping in your bed at night or anywhere really in your life.
He shared some of the more entertaining times he had to fight to keep his title.
“We had an interesting one (title defense) in a park where I jumped over a car,” he remembered. Another wrestler “put on a dog costume, and I flipped over him as a dog. But some of the good ones were me and Dana (Brooke) in a restaurant on Valentine’s Day and I took it from her when I left her with the bill.”
Then it was on to NXT under the character name of “Scrypts.” He remained in NXT until the Spring of 2024.
Now he’s on the Independent Circuit wrestling all over the country. He’s done his most recent work with Game Changer Wrestling (GCW).
It’s quite a story for a young man who started in the world of drug dealing and gangs only to turn it all around and attain global stardom.