Part 2 with Devin Driscoll of D1 Knoxville

Devin Driscoll (0:03)

And I said, well, I know if I can really go all in on this, that we can make something pretty special here. So I negotiated the deal to buy it, and bought the business in 2018, and I also said I wanted to fill the building.

And I said, I'll fill these, I'll help. And John David was the real leader of that space. So long story short, we worked together, B and Jay Cobble, his partner, and we filled the building. And so it's one of those things that just kind of snowballed over time.

SPEAKER_3 (0:32)

From the IT Company, it's Made Right Here, the stories of East Tennessee founders, creators, and builders. From the idea behind it, to the impact it had on the community, their employees, and their personal lives, we're taking you behind the scenes of the movements they built.

Macy Brink (0:51)

Hey, I'm Macy Brink with the IT Company. We're excited to have you here, joining us for the Made Right Here podcast. Today's episode is part two with Devin Driscoll. In Devin's first episode, we heard his story of how he hustled and worked tirelessly to make his dream of being a WWE wrestler a reality.

Today, we hear the continuation of this story, and we get to watch and see it unfold and how he used his experiences from the WWE to become the leader he is today, and how he once again hustled to create something that now provides opportunities for young athletes to take themselves to the next level. We're excited to share this story with you. Check it out.

Devin Driscoll (1:33)

What really stumped was, the day I got back, literally the first day I was clear to have gotten over with somebody, and the guy just punched me in a match, or in practice, excuse me. It was just total mistake, and he punched me, Sean Allensborn, in the ear, and it hurt so bad, but at the end of it. Then two days later, I see my ear go like this, like this, like this, and I've gotten severely bad cauliflower ear from a punch, and you can kind of see it to this day, it's like square over, and it ballooned, and there was something popped in my ear, and all this blood had just kind of rushed to it.

So then I had to go to the hospital, get it drained and take it out. So for two weeks, I was out right after I got back.

SPEAKER_3 (2:10)

Oh my gosh.

Devin Driscoll (2:11)

And I had to, imagine going to Chipotle like this, and a headband with a cup over my ear, and walking into a place, you never see anybody had this in their hair, like, hey, how are you? So it was just one thing after the other there for a while.

SPEAKER_3 (2:23)

Your parents, obviously your dad's pretty successful, but there's a theme where you didn't have any money.

So obviously, he wouldn't like just giving you whatever you want. Like, you're working it.

Devin Driscoll (2:34)

Yeah, no, my parents have always been supportive in their own way. But yeah, it was one of those things, like, I was always fighting, and with WWE, I finally had some security. I thought, here's the thing about WWE that people don't realize is, when you first get in, you don't get paid anything, you know? It's like a baseball contract, right? The only way to make any money in wrestling is to be a top tier guy on Raw or SmackDown. If you're not, you're not making hardly any money, especially back then. It's changed a lot now to where guys in the position that we were in then now are making $70,000, $80,000. By the time we were lucky to make $30,000, you know? And you're working seven days a week. So it was, no, yes, and I came back to Knoxville. I only had, I bet you I had less than $500 on my bank account.

And so then, you know, but the thing with WWE is I mean, I was literally up for a raise that year.

I would have got double what I had gotten if I had saved an extra two weeks, three weeks.

SPEAKER_3 (3:34)

I mean, obviously WWE is part of your professional career, but there's this whole next level, and how did we get to that point?

Devin Driscoll (3:41)

So I moved back in December, it was December 17th or 18th. I put my notice in 2017 to WWE, and it was over the holidays. It was a Sunday night, I had my last show with my travel buddy, my best friend in the business time, Chris Rombola.