Here at BuffsBlog, we get the scoops that you CU fans-turned-pro-rasslin’ fans really want to read. So here’s the scoop:
Colorado safety Ben Finneseth is spending this week in Orlando trying out to become a WWE/NXT Superstar. Yes, that WWE, alongside roughly twenty other hopefuls in the WWE / NXT Performance Center’s first 2026 tryout.
Those that are trying out include indie wrestlers (including one wrestler named “Starboy Charlie”), a basketball player or two, and assorted combat-sport crossovers. The tryout runs through Friday.
For the uninitiated: WWE’s been mining college athletics via its NIL-to-NXT pipeline for a few years now. Finneseth, a rangy safety that has been a great special teams player for the Buffs, is a character tailor-made for WWE. He’s outspoken and loud – it’s impossible not to hear him when he enters the room. And he would join a long list of former college football players turned pro wrestlers like The Rock (Miami), Roman Reigns (Georgia Tech), Big E (Iowa), Bron Breakker (Kennesaw State), and Stone Cold Steve Austin (Texas State), among many others.
Former CU football star Big Van Vader (Vader), locally known as Leon White, was an All Big 8 offensive lineman for Colorado before he became a champion in WWF, WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
If Finneseth sticks, add him to the growing list of college-football-to-NXT converts; if not, he’s back in Boulder with a great story and, one assumes, a new appreciation for pro wrestling after a few days of bump drills.
Either way, we endorse the chaos. Deion’s program attracting WWE interest is extremely on-brand, Finneseth gets a shot at a second dream, and we get to monitor transaction wires that include both depth charts and suplexes. Works for us.
Want to read more from Buffsblog? Check out this story about the changes to expect in CU’s gameday experience after the hiring of new AD Fernando Lovo:
Of course John, the corporate lawyer and Michigan law grad, has the WWF scoop.
Very on brand.
I’m a man of many interests. And CU football is the closest thing to WWE that I can think of. 🙂