The Rascalz have broken up, as Trey Miguel remained with IMPACT Wrestling while Dez and Wentz signed with WWE. In a recent appearance on the Wilde On podcast, Miguel reflected on his decision to stay while his teammates left.
While many believed the trio would join WWE together, Miguel was not part of the same WWE PC recruitment class, leading to speculation about his status. Trey had been open on social media about being home for some family-related issues and said he had a nephew that was born premature, and Triple H was also asked about Miguel’s status on the WWE side of things during the NXT War Games media call. Choosing to decline comment on why Miguel was not there, Triple H did say wrestling was a “passion business” and you have to be all in.
Shortly after Triple H’s remarks, Trey issued another statement in response, pointing out that he was home to be with his family and “meeting a healthy baby boy is more important to me than anything else.”
Now, on Wilde On, Miguel went into greater detail about why he elected not to sign with WWE and what returning to IMPACT meant to him personally.
“Zack’s married, and Dez is engaged now, and they just need wrestling in a different way than I do right now, if that makes sense,” said Miguel. “And they need it to do different things for them than I do. And I also think that, and I don’t mean to sound like I’m speaking bad about IMPACT, but I feel like they ran out of things to do with the Rascalz. You know what I mean? And there’s no need in just staying if there’s nothing to do, and I have ideas for IMPACT and I have things I wanna do and things that I didn’t get done yet, and I don’t want to leave without having that done.
“And IMPACT also affords me the luxury of being able to stay home, which is like super duper important to me because we have a wrestling school here, and I’m one of the head trainers there, and I’m there every single day, and I’m so close to the kids that we have there, and the other trainers, too. And I have a lot of family here, and wrestling has my heart more than anything in the world.
“But I’ve just been through so much personally that I can’t pull myself away from my family right now, I can’t do that. I have a brother that passed away in 2013, it’s life, but my oldest brother just had my most recent nephew, and he was born two months premature because his mother fell ill, so they actually induced her. And he’s home now but he was in isolated care for two months and they named him after my late brother and it’s just like, I couldn’t imagine moving to f—— Orlando, Florida a month after this little miracle, you know what I mean? That’s not it for me. And it’s not like, if I don’t go to Orlando, I don’t get to wrestle anymore. I still get to wrestle more than anyone at NXT. I train whenever I want, you know what I mean?”
Miguel also discussed his close relationship with Alex Shelley, which has blossomed since the Rascalz split up.
“One of the coolest opportunities that have come out of it have been getting to work with Alex Shelley,” said Miguel. “I mean, being 14,15 and 16 watching him as one of the [Motor City Machine] Guns and Chris Sabin, like oh my god, I was just such a little fanboy over those two.
“To be able to have the opportunity, he’s made me a project, I mean from the wrestling to the personal conversations, everything. I mean like, it wasn’t easy having Dez and Zack just be taken out of my life, almost, because Zack was a two-hour drive away, and now we don’t get to wrestle with each other anymore. The Rascalz aren’t a thing anymore, and that’s been really rough on me. And Shelley’s been there the entire time, and I’ve had so many bouts with depression, and I feel like I’ve been open about it on social media, so I don’t believe it’s a secret. And he relates to that and he was there, he knew it without me having to say a thing.
“He was like, ‘Trey, I can see the inside of you crumbling, we are not going to let this happen.’ And every day is just [a] endless conversation with him about mental health and wrestling and he’s just one of the best people I could have met and gotten close to during all this. I honestly think he saved my life.
“I think that’s even more full circle than like having a dream to just be a WWE superstar, like having that come true. My favorite wrestler is now my big brother…. It’s awesome, and that wouldn’t be something that’s happening right now, either [if I signed with WWE.]”
Dez and Wentz debuted on NXT on January 13 as MSK, while Miguel has since returned to IMPACT Wrestling on January 26.
If you use any portion of this transcript, please credit Colin Tessier of WrestleZone.com and link to this post.
The full episode is available below:
