Illinois to WWE? This former Syracuse football star chases the pro wrestling dream

Josh Black has given up one dream, but the former Syracuse football star from the Rockford area is ready to go full-on after another.

So while football will go on the back-burner, at least for the time being, the Machesney Park Harlem grad took part early this month in a WWE professional wrestling tryout in Detroit, Michigan, pushing to become a star on another type of stage.

"My two dreams," Black said, "have always been football and wrestling... So let's go after this one."

Black played six seasons of college football, starting every game on the Syracuse defensive front his last three years. He was then battling for a roster spot with the New Orleans Saints for most of the summer last year.

But the 6-foot-3, 290-pounder who turned 25 on the last Christmas Day was cut by the Saints on one of their last roster moves before the 2022 season opener, and he was never picked up by another team after that. He waited, and hoped, but the call never came.

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"I just never really got my foot back in the door; I'm not sure why," Black said. "I was down for a little bit. It was tough on my mental health. I was playing football since I was 9 or 10 and it was my dream. And then, nothing.

"But now I'm re-focused, and I've got my mental health back in order, and I'm ready to go after another dream."

'Plan A' fell through

Black finished with 35 tackles, six tackles for loss and a half a sack in 2021 to close out his career, and helped the defense hold opponents to 330 yards per game, Syracuse's lowest number in 11 years. In 60 games and 48 starts over six seasons, he had 155 tackles, 24 tackles for loss, eight sacks, two fumble recoveries, an interception and two blocked kicks.

But he went undrafted, and after the Saints couldn't find a spot for him, neither could any of the other NFL teams. He was given offers from teams in the USFL, the Canadian Football League and the AFL, but he eventually turned them all down.

"It was kind of like 'NFL or nothing' for me," Black said.

Luckily for him, he had a backup plan.

So it was on to 'Plan B'

He was off the grid and "finding myself" for nearly a year, but Black eventually moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he started working as a personal trainer and running online personal training classes. He's always been extremely athletic, and has had a video of him doing a backflip off a wall pinned on his Twitter page for years now.

Black said last winter that if he didn't latch on to an NFL team, his backup plan was to try out for the WWE professional wrestling organization. When he got the call last month for an official WWE tryout,he knew it was time.

"They told me they had an opportunity for me, and I said 'Let's go,'" Black said. "The WWE has been a big part of my whole family, so this is a big step. I'm ready."

He was at WWE tryouts

So Black accepted an invitation, and earlier this month made his way out to Detroit, Michigan, for the four-day WWE tryout. There were planned physical examinations, conditioning drills, one-on-one verbal exams, mock commercial sit-ins, and a lot of your everyday, standard all-star wrestling-type of workouts.

"Every tryout for these guys is a little bit different, but it all comes down to how athletic you are, and how entertaining you are," Black said. "They want big-time athletes, and guys who can sell themselves... Let's see what I can do."

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According to Black, at the end of the tryout, on Friday, every one of the nearly 40 participants will find out if they made it onto the WWE, and those who did will quickly sign a three-year rookie contract and get to work. Those who didn't will go home.

Last year there were 37 who tried out, and 15 were eventually signed to WWE contracts. But the odds are not always that high.

"It just all depends on who's there, and what you've got," Black said. "I believe I've got what it takes."

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: WWE wrestling: Syracuse, Harlem player Josh Black at wrestling tryout