A rising star in WWE has stated that The Undertaker and Ric Flair are two of his biggest influences regarding his entrance.

Taking his time on the way to the ring, Taker’s entrances heightened the prestige and anticipation of the match and eventually became nearly as important as the match itself due to the sheer gravitas of what fans were seeing. Aware of the impact the entrance and its subtleties can have, NXT North American Champion Oba Femi has utilized the greats to his advantage.

Discussing his entrance with Bill Pritchard of Wrestle Zone, the North American Champion elaborated on his march to the ring and compared it to the iconic Flair strut:

“Well, the march to the ring especially, it has more to do with the entrance theme song than it has to do with any necessary character presentation,” said Femi. “People have definitely seen that strut before, but most people are not sure where they’ve seen it. If you look from Buddy Rogers to Ric Flair to Oba Femi, it’s the same thing. It’s just done slightly differently, and there are different renditions of it. It flows with the beat. The strut and all that stuff, a lot of those additions have been, again, organic, because it goes with the beat, so I started doing it and I kept doing it because it made sense.”

Continuing, Femi also explained how his entrance is slowed down to maximize his time on camera and to add to the excitement, a tactic utilized by The Phenom for many years:

“It felt like a march to war,” he continued. “As a march of confidence as opposed to a charge. I’ve never understood why your music hits and then you bolt to the ring and you spend as little time on camera as possible. What is that? Why are you running? There’s no need to do that. If you take your time, there’s a certain comfort and confidence that goes with that. Look at The Undertaker’s entrance. It takes 10 minutes, but that’s 10 minutes of anticipation, confidence, and aura. So that’s the same thing I tried to adapt.”

Femi has become one of the most dominant stars on the brand and one that many have earmarked as a top star in the future, with fans wanting to see the North American Champion on the main roster sooner rather than later.