The former Ridge Holland has now broken down how different it was working under both Triple H and Vince McMahon.
Rising from a small town in West Yorkshire near Leeds, Ridge Holland, aka Luke Menzies, was a rugby player before becoming a professional wrestler. Training in the UK and the European indie circuit, Menzies built himself a strong portfolio before flying out to the USA for WWE NXT.
Speaking to F4Wonline in an exclusive interview, Holland opened up about his time in NXT and the WWE main roster. Holland joined NXT in 2020 while it was still under Triple H’s leadership and in the Black & Gold era.
“Yeah, I mean, it was always about opportunity, giving people opportunities. You know, you might have had to wait a little bit, but my personal experience was that everything was great. He had from what it seems and what I heard, he had big plans for me. Everything was going swimmingly, obviously, until I got, I got injured, which seems to be a kind of like a bit of a running theme in my career up until late. But yeah, you know, nothing but good experiences really. You know, obviously coming in and not experiencing that type of environment before and having someone who was firmly behind you was, you know, it was a massive boost in confidence,” Holland said.
However, shortly after, he was put on the main roster where he experienced a completely different environment under Vince McMahon. “So at that point, it was just Vince [McMahon] because Triple H had had his health scare. All my dealings on the main roster were basically with Vince, Bruce [Prichard], and John Laurinaitis. So yeah, that was an experience [laughs].
“Just as what you’ve probably heard from anyone else. Very intense. Obviously, he’s a crazy billionaire, you know. It’s intense. Being there and just watching him operate. I had a couple of interactions with him. And from what I can remember, that for the Brawling Brutes at least, he had some big plans, but, you know, and they kind of never really came to fruition, and I’m sure it’s just something that, you know, it happens. Yeah, nothing truly negative. But yeah, he was there, and it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, look, there’s Vince. There he is walking past’ and stuff, so. He’s got a bit of aura.'”
Many pro-wrestlers have communicated the same before and described how competitive and pressurised the situation was working under McMahon. When asked to compare the two working environments under McMahon and Triple H, Holland said that while one was like walking on eggshells, the other was much more relaxed.
“I think the main thing was that around Vince and around that kind of the systems he had in place, there was a lot of kind of like people walking on eggshells. Just from how he liked everyone to be pretty high-strung in a really competitive environment. But when Triple H took over, it was more like just relax, and you could kind of more or less just take a deep breath and be yourself. And I think everyone felt a little bit more comfortable, if that’s the right term. Just a little bit more comfortable.”
Holland’s jump to the main roster saw him get paired with Sheamus and Butch (Pete Dunne) as part of The Brawling Brutes. While he enjoyed his time with the duo, Holland believes WWE never pulled the trigger on them.
“It was good fun. I think we had a lot more legs than what we were to achieve. I think we had a lot more in us. But it was fun, you know, traveling down the road, and obviously, Sheamus is, you know, Hall of Fame career, you know, certified Hall of Famer. And just to get in there and obviously be reintroduced back with Pete [Dunne], it was great. We managed to get ourselves organically over as babyfaces, and with that, Sheamus had one of his most babyface runs. But yeah, it just felt like they never really pulled the trigger. I mean, we wrestled a couple of times for the tag team belts. You know, we were in the War Games, the inaugural War Games on the main roster. Yeah. And then we had a really good kind of like Donnybrook match with Imperium. But yeah, it was fun. Although I think there was a lot more that we could have done. But I was grateful for the opportunity,” Holland said.
Despite feeling he could’ve done more with The Brawling Brutes, Holland expressed his gratitude for whatever plans WWE placed him in. Recalling being a part of the first main-roster WarGames match, he shared, “Yeah, just again, a big opportunity. I never realized that we’d be involved in that. But it was a funny situation because we didn’t really have the match down until like 20 minutes before bell time. Nerve-wracking. But we all the beats and made sure that The Bloodline and all of their story. That was the main point, the story of The Bloodline. You know, it was the main point of getting that out, you know, getting that across, and we managed to do it. I would’ve liked to have a bit of a bigger part in it and done some more things, but you know, you’ve just gotta play your part. You know, and play the role that you can. But I’m grateful for the opportunity, and I can say at least I was involved in that match.“
Luke Menzies, fka Ridge Holland, recalls his memories working with Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre, and Sheamus
Roman Reigns is regarded as one of the biggest names on the WWE roster. With an extremely successful portfolio, Reigns is often seen at the pinnacle of the company. When asked about his experience working with Reigns, Holland said, “We’ve been in a couple of six-man tags, and then obviously the War Games match. But he’s a huge star. He’s super cool behind the scenes. He just does his thing, you know? He is the marquee. His face is on the, you know, everything. So he carries himself like a star. He is a star. He performs like a star. He’s the man. Every encounter that I had with Roman Reigns, although fleeting, they were all positive. He was a cool guy.“
The West Yorkshire native also had positive words to say about his fellow Irish and British Isles wrestlers, Sheamus and McIntyre. When asked what advice they gave him, Holland said, “Just basically, just to be physical, be aggressive. Obviously, those two guys are, you know, that’s their forte. So a lot of people pull from their own experiences in trying to give advice from the things that they’ve encountered. So, just be aggressive, bring it in the ring, and bring that mindset, which is what those guys did. Yeah, good times. More memories of, like, being on the road and being in the car with Drew and Sheamus, ’cause they are like a married old couple. You know, they’ve been friends forever, so hear them bickering and stuff. We used to call Drew ‘Sleepy’ ’cause he was always in the car sleeping, and Sheamus would be more or less be the wheel man. So we had some good times.”
A former rugby player, Holland experienced a run in the European indie wrestling circuit, which he believes has given rise to several top wrestlers in the world right now.
“Yeah, I mean, when you look, you look at the, the kind of like the plethora of talent that we’ve had from the British independent scene, right? You don’t have to look as far as NXT UK. The inaugural version of that, where you had like your Pete Dunnes, your Tyler Bates, your Trent Sevens, you know, your Jordan Devlins, even your Rampage Browns. I’m probably missing a ton of names out here, you know,” Holland said.
“And then you go across obviously, like the European side, where you have Ilja [Dragunov], you know, Imperium, Walter. And then obviously I’ve never really had much dealings with Will Ospreay, but he’s obviously a fantastic talent and, yeah, I think that it showed that there was a pathway for young budding wrestlers, passionate young wrestlers, that there was an actual avenue to get to where they wanted to be, which was obviously WWE. And now we’ve got even more options there with the AEW, TNA, MLW now and stuff, and so yeah, it showed people that there was an actual pathway.”
In his career, filled with ups and downs, the road was not always easy for Holland. From training under Marty Jones to getting his US visa rejected and then wrestling in the indies, Holland has made a name for himself. Now cleared to wrestle after his injury, Holland is gearing up for his comeback in the UK’s National Wrestling League.
