Former WWE star Sidney Akeem, formerly known as Reggie in WWE, recently revealed that his SCRYPTS character in NXT failed due to creative interference. The former WWE 24/7 Champion explained that the final version on television did not match his original vision.
During an appearance on the Rewind Recap Relive podcast, Akeem detailed his original pitch to Shawn Michaels. He proposed a mask gimmick where Rey Mysterio would give him a mask before a six-man tag match, providing newfound confidence for a big win.
The storyline was supposed to involve Dominik Mysterio developing animosity over his father giving Akeem the mask. This would have led to Dominik turning on either Rey or Akeem, but creative shelved the idea before Dominik eventually joined Judgment Day.
Creative Changes Derailed Original Vision
Akeem explained how the character evolved away from his concept. When NXT’s head writer asked what else he did for fun, Akeem mentioned slam poetry, which led to the dark poet direction.
“Too many chefs in the kitchen,” Akeem said.
So I went to NXT and I told them the idea with the mask, and then their head writer said, ‘What else do you do for fun?’ I said, ‘I do slam poetry.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I had this idea of this dark poet.’ Me, I’m a team player. Then they came up with this idea of you’ll do this and do that. On TV, I wasn’t ready because the mask was horrible, the gear was horrible, and the gimmick was horrible. What you saw was not Scrypts, you saw Blink Man.”
The wrestler emphasized he was a team player who went along with creative’s vision, but the final product fell short of his original idea. He noted that what aired on NXT television was not the SCRYPTS character he had envisioned.
New Character Fulfills Original Vision
Akeem revealed his current Soleil character represents everything SCRYPTS was supposed to be. He has creative freedom to execute the vision he wrote in 2020.
“Soleil was everything that Scrypts were supposed to be back in NXT,” Akeem explained. “This time I have the creative freedom to do it the way I want to do it, the way that I envisioned it.”
So it’s almost full circle, but this time I have the creative freedom to do it the way I want to do it, the way that I envisioned it, the way that I wrote this story in 2020. This is the birth of that. I’m not losing Sidney Akeem. Most people put a mask on to hide who they were and who they are. I put the mask on as a sign of courage and confidence to show that no matter where you come from, no matter what you’ve been through or what people tell you you can’t do, that there’s a superhero inside of everyone.
The name Soleil is French for sun, paying homage to his nearly two decades with Cirque du Soleil. Akeem calls himself The Black Sun and has developed a comic book backstory where Sidney Akeem gets released from a wrestling promotion, walks away, and discovers the Soleil mask in a circus.