Former WWE Superstar Low Ki may have won the second season of WWE NXT, but he was hardly the wrestler that the company was backing.

In 2010, Low Ki, as Kaval, won back when NXT was a reality show format and earned a WWE contract and a shot at a championship.

On a recent edition of the “That’s Wrestling” podcast, Low Ki shared that Alex Riley was the name higher-ups wanted to win. He added,

“They were trying to do the same nonsense they did in the 1980s [hand-picking someone to be a star] and trying to pull it off in 2009/2010.”

The show saw Riley, who had a featured role on the main roster alongside The Miz, come in third behind Kaval and Michael McGillicutty.

During the podcast, Low Ki also spoke about McGillicutty, who later worked as Curtis Axel, a nod to his father Curt Hennig and grandfather Larry ‘The Ax’ Hennig.

Many fans believe Axel simply should have been able to compete with his real name Joe Hennig, an idea Low Ki agreed with. He said,

“Why would you try and take his identity away from him and give him some stupid name that was an inside joke between Curt Hennig and Vince McMahon?… These morons don’t understand what they’re doing because they wanna to be in charge, they don’t care about the people that they work with.”

Other notable NXT season two talent include Titus O’Neil, the first name eliminated and Husky Harris, who later wrestled as Bray Wyatt.

Rather than a World Title, Low Ki used his title match to unsuccessfully challenge for the Intercontinental Title and would be gone by the end of the year.