Paul Heyman promised that Parker Boudreaux was the next big thing.
The advocate for Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins made a guarantee that the former WWE star would be huge in the business back in 2021 and Parker Boudreaux would end up being signed by the company.
Soon, Boudreaux was introduced as Harland on NXT, accompanying Joe Gacy to his matches and segments. The 27-year-old wasn’t lighting the world on fire, but that’s mostly due to WWE handicapping him with a lifeless bodyguard gimmick that really didn’t allow Parker to show his personality.
Parker was released in April 2022. 17 months after he signed to WWE.
He was quickly picked up by AEW by December 2022. He was briefly a part of the heel faction known as The Trustbusters. But then Boudreaux was elevated to being one of the members of Swerve Strickland’s Mogul Affiliates. Unfortunately, an injury kept from doing anything of note with the group.
Eventually, he was released from AEW in 2024. Boudereaux’s been rather quiet ever since. However, the former WWE star is still hard at work wrestling and a surprising name is helping guide his journey, Paul Heyman.
“Paul Heyman still to this day, still messaging me.” Parker said to SolCal Val. “Obviously, I’m not in the WWE or even AEW right now. But to have someone of his caliber and to have his mind… still to this day just wanting to help me and wanting to see me succeed, it’s amazing. To have him in my corner still to this day means the world to me and it’s an honor. So I can’t say enough amazing things about Paul Heyman.”
Boudreaux briefly talked about his WWE release in 2022 and he still doesn’t understand what he did wrong.
“It was definitely probably the most blindsiding thing that I’ve had to deal with pro wrestling-wise… For the most part, I thought I was doing everything right. So I never got an exact reason. My thing was budget cuts. But I have no idea.”
And how the Brock Lesnar comparison was a gift and a curse.
“It’s a blessing and a curse. Because obviously I’m not Brock Lesnar. I’m not the next Brock Lesnar. He’s probably the greatest athlete slash pro wrestler of all time. I see the similarities. Obviously, we’re almost same height, same weight, we’re very explosive and athletic and crazy and have that insane factor that you can’t teach in the ring or outside of the ring. But we’re so different in so many ways… He is Brock Lesnar, and I’m trying to be the first and only Parker Boudreaux.”
Check out his full interview where Parker talks about his hopes of going back to WWE, his dream opponents in WWE, AEW, and Japan, and what he wants to prove when returning to a made US promotion.