Je’Von Evans on Randy Orton Match Announcement Being Spoiled Early For Him, Reason For Botched Ending To His Match with Orton, Reason Why His Match Against El Grande Americano Was Stopped Early, & More

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcact featured Je’Von Evans as the guest. One of the topics discussed Evans’ thoughts about his match with Randy Orton on the October 4, 2024 episode of WWE NXT and how NXT talent Harlem Lewis accidentally spoiled the match announcement for him early backstage.

“So honestly, they tried to surprise me, but I knew before it was gonna happen, and I’ll tell you why. So before the match, and not before the match announcement, maybe like a couple days, we had like promo class at NXT, and I’m talking to the writer, and I’m like, ‘Hey, do I get new gear for this show?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, we’re working on something…’ Whatever, whatever. All right, cool. Say less. Then it was me and Cedric versus No Quarter Catch Crew, I believe, and before the match, Randy Orton follows me on IG. All right, that’s cool, that’s cool. Then I’m about to go out, and I’m not gonna say their name. Actually it already happened, right? I think it was just Harlem Lewis. Maybe it was just him. But he’s like, ‘Yo, did you see this post?’ And I’m like, ‘What post?’ ‘You going against Randy Orton?’ This was before the match. I’m like, ‘I am?’ He shows me the post, and I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s fire, whatever.’ Then I go have the match, and then the ref is like, ‘Hey, stay here, just react to whatever’s on the screen.’ I was like, all right, cool, and then I look at the screen. It’s the post that I saw before the match, and I was like, Yeah! So, Harlem Lewis it’s your fault, and you’re probably gonna get hit for it.”

Evans also gave his thoughts about the reason for the botched ending sequence to his match against Orton was due to they did not physically run through the moves beforehand for rehearsals.

“No, we didn’t. It was literally just us saying, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a cool idea. Let’s do it.’ He was like, ‘You do the spinny thing, and I catch you.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.’ But I think just position-wise, we didn’t try it before the show. It was just kind of a thing we had an idea about. It took me a while to watch that match because of that. I didn’t watch that match for months.

But also, it’s cool to look at it and be like that was just a real moment. Everything in wrestling is not pretty. We’re still fighting at the end of the day. I just love now I can look back at the moment, kind of like this. But I still look at it like ‘Okay.’ But I can look back at it, and say ‘Dang, I learned from that moment.’ Then even if we hit that smoothly, we probably wouldn’t have got Randy Orton moment saying, ‘Hey, bro, you’re the man.’”

Evans also gave his thoughts about Orton’s reaction to his apology after the match and how Orton told him that he had nothing to worry about.

“He was like, ‘Hey, don’t worry, bro, you’re the effing man. Raise my hand, bro.’ Of course, I was still pissed, but in my head, I’m like all right, bro, Randy just said I’m the man.”

Evans also gave his thoughts about his match against El Grande Americano on the January 19th episode of WWE RAW and cause of his injury that led to their match to be stopped early.

“So basically, I think before we went to commercial, me and Americano butt heads, and for a couple seconds I was like seeing stars or whatever. But I’m from the indie scene. You get hurt, you keep going unless you can’t go no more. So we butt heads, and I was kind of stunned for a little minute. But then I continued, and then we went to break, and so I went to the ref. I’m like, ‘Hey, look, I’m seeing stars, but I’m good.’ He’s like, ‘What?’ And then I’m like, ‘I was seeing stars, but I’m okay.’ He said, ‘Do we need to call medical?’ I’m like, ‘No, no, we don’t. I just got here, dude. I’m okay.’ Then he’s like, ‘No, we gotta call medical because it’s a head injury.’ So we got medical, and then they were asking me questions, and I was like, I promise, I’m okay. But because we hit heads and because I was seeing stars, they had to call it.”

Evans also gave his thoughts about his memorable OG Cutter spot off the top rope to catch Bravo Americano who also had leap off another top rope during his tag team match with Original El Grande Americano against Los Americanos on the February 9th episode of WWE RAW.

“I’m a nervous guy. All right, I was so nervous about that, because, of course, you know I jump high, and then he had to jump literally maybe a couple milliseconds before I jump. We had the timing off perfectly. Then we did it, and I was so proud. I was so proud about that. Because I knew that if I messed up, then of course the fans would be like, ‘Oh, Je’Von needs to stop doing the dumb stuff. He needs to calm down.’ But because I hit it correctly, now everybody’s like, Oh, that was fire!”

Evans also gave his thoughts about his current goal for his WWE career being him wanting to win the Intercontinental Championship within a year to become the youngest ever holder of the title in WWE history.

“I am very, very locked in and focused on that, because I feel like I have an opportunity to recreate history, and it’s cool because, as I said earlier, I have so much time. To me, with these goals, I don’t have so much time. In general, I do, but bro, everybody’s trying to compete for something,” said Evans. “So, of course, yeah. I have a year to be the youngest IC Champion, but I still gotta go through Chad Gable. I’m pretty sure Ethan Page wants that. I’m pretty sure Dragon Lee wants it. I want to be World Heavyweight champ. I’m pretty sure Oba (Femi) and Trick (Williams) want it. I’m pretty sure Seth (Rollins) wants it. I have people that I have to go through.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3, F4WOnline.com 1 & 2