Summary

Trevor Lee says the Cameron Grimes character was his idea, and it grew out of what was happening in his real life during the 2021 stock market frenzy.

Lee explained that the GameStop run, AMC trading, and the early Dogecoin boom all lined up with an old joke he had about taking his Carolina Caveman character in a new direction. Once he had made money during that stretch, he sent proof to NXT creative and pitched the concept of a suddenly wealthy version of himself.

Quote from Trevor Lee

"That was 100% my idea. It really became because it did happen. I really did do well at that time. The AMC trade was happening, the GameStop trade was happening, Dogecoin, that was when it first really started popping off. So that was a big thing that kind of helped pitch the idea as well because if you follow my career, I was the Carolina Caveman. I had always kind of joked about like what the next iteration of that character would be. Like, wouldn’t it be funny if the Caveman just got rich one day, but it was always just kind of a joke. But then when that stock stuff started happening, I did do well in that. So I sent screenshots to the writer of NXT at the time and I was like, ‘Look, here it is, here’s the evidence.’ They were like, ‘Okay, well, let’s give it a shot.’ At first, they said, ‘Let’s give it a shot for a couple weeks, if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t work.’"

Lee later went on to say:

"I think after about a couple of weeks, they go, ‘You know what? I think we’re going to bring in Ted DiBiase and let’s just see. We’ll bring him in for a week and let’s see if it works.’ Then we ended up doing some pretty good stuff with that and that’s kind of like the most talked about thing about my character now was that start of that run of the Cameron Grimes character. So it ended up being pretty cool."

Ted DiBiase helped turn the idea into a bigger NXT story

Lee said the original plan was only to test the gimmick for a short run, but it gained enough momentum that Ted DiBiase was brought in as part of the act. That program became one of the most memorable parts of Cameron Grimes' time in NXT, especially as the rich, overconfident presentation clicked with the audience.

What Lee's comments say about Cameron Grimes in NXT

Cameron Grimes worked in NXT because Lee was not playing a random trend, he was building on a character idea he already understood and tying it to a moment fans instantly recognized. His comments also show why the DiBiase pairing mattered, because once NXT added a wrestling figure who naturally fit the money gimmick, the character moved from a short-term experiment into a featured storyline.

Sources

Trevor Lee while speaking on In The Weeds