Case Hatch was having trouble navigating what came after his football career at Arizona State. He was hoping to go on to the NFL but encountered some obstacles when talking to teams ahead of the annual draft. Injuries from his past presented issues that teams could not overlook, so his professional career was over before it could begin.

He was thrown a lifeline, one that was unexpected but maybe expected at the same time. The WWE. As in professional wrestling.

Hatch, 27, never followed the sport growing up, but got an introduction to it before his senior season in Tempe when the sports entertainment giant recruited him as part of the second class of athletes in its NIL program.

No, that is not the Name, Image, Likeness issue that is now part of the landscape of college sports. That is NIL, as in "Next in Line," a program that the WWE instituted three years ago to identify athletes at the collegiate level whom they might consider possible talent once their eligibility had been exhausted. Recruits are educated on careers in WWE, given tours of the facilities and given advice in branding and advertising.

The WWE logo is seen on the front of the WWE wrestling world headquarters on January 28, 2024 in Stamford, Connecticut.

Hatch said shortly after his NFL dream was torpedoed, the WWE reached out to him to see if he was still interested in professional wrestling. It showed that he was on the organization's radar because it called him before he had the chance to reach out to them.

"That was great," Hatch said. "I was still kind of bummed about football not working out. They had always told me, 'If you really want to do this, give us a call.' And I didn't even get around to it because they called me first. It was a good sign that they were keeping track of me."

Hatch, a product of Perry High School, did not hesitate. He and his wife, Sammy, packed up and moved across the country, settling in Orlando so Case could work out at the WWE's Developmental Training Center, which is located there.

Sammy is also an Arizona native, but Case didn't have to do much to convince her to relocate.

"He has always had good instincts," Sammy said of her husband, whom she wed in January 2022. "If he thought this was a great opportunity, then we couldn't pass it up. Long-term, we'd like to be back in Arizona, but for now we're enjoying this adventure. We have made some great friends here, and it has been going great."

From Arizona State football to a WWE alter ego

One of the first tasks upon his arrival was to settle on a stage name. The WWE has a creative team that advises on those things, comes up with character ideas and storylines. Hatch was told to come up with a few names. The WWE staff would do the same, and the parties would talk through the process.

It was Sammy who came up with her husband's name. Tate Wilder. She said she used the Snap GPT app and plugged in the suggestions of country wrestler names. Tate and Wilder came up as part of different suggestions, and she put the names together.

The WWE braintrust loved the name. So Tate Wilder was born. In professional wrestling, there are heels (the villains) and the faces (the good guys). Tate Wilder is a "face." Hatch said his bosses also like the idea of his "character" because it was looking for a country-themed, blue-collar-type athlete to add to the mix.

The name and character resonated with the couple, too, mostly because it isn't much of a stretch. Hatch grew up in a large family and worked on its farm. Whether it was working on the farm or his role on the ASU football team in the unheralded position of fullback, Hatch was known for his work ethic and team-first mentality.

"I love the character because that really is me," Hatch said. "I'm not trying to portray someone I'm not."

Hatch is assigned to the "Evolve" brand in NXT, which is the training ground for the WWE's name brands of Raw and Smackdown, but he has had a chance to rub elbows with some of its biggest stars, most notably the "American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes. Shawn Michaels, known in his competitive days as "The Heartbreak Kid," oversees the WWE's developmental brands.

Hatch has also gotten to know Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, although that was not through wrestling circles. Hatch got in touch with him through Sammy, who was friends with professional dancer Witney Carson, whom she got to know because the two are members of the same LDS church. Carson was Mizanin's partner when he performed on "Dancing With the Stars."

"They have all been very helpful and nothing but welcoming," he said of the established stars in the sport. "They seem like larger-than-life superheroes, and I was a little bit in awe at first, but now they're my colleagues."

Hatch came to the ASU football team after a two-year LDS mission served in Miami. He entered the program as a walk-on and, in true Hatch fashion, took advantage of an opportunity by earning all Pac-12 honors for his play on special teams. By the time he graduated, he was a starter and team captain.

Broken facemasks to broken bones

It was Hatch's hard-nosed style of play that attracted the WWE. He broke four facemasks, no small task.

His path in the WWE hasn't been easy either. He has suffered two injuries, which have derailed his in-ring development. The first was a torn patella tendon soon after signing his first contract. That sidelined him for nine months.

His first televised match was a tag-team event in which he teamed with Drako Knox against Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe.

The second injury came after that, a broken hand during practice while working on a maneuver. He shattered the first metacarpal bone in his right hand, which required surgery. He was only recently cleared to return to the ring.

The risk of injury is something Sammy has learned to live with.

"It's always there," said Sammy, who is expecting the couple's first child in September. "But it was there with football, too. I see how much he is enjoying this, and I know this isn't something he is going to do forever, so we have to just keep going."

Yes, it is a full-time job. Hatch said he works out every day, Monday through Saturday. The day starts with a couple of hours of in-ring training. After lunch, it is on to strength and conditioning work. Time is also spent on promotional photo shoots, branding, and working on character development.

Asked the biggest different between the sports, Hatch did not hesitate.

"There is no time off," he said. "With football there was an end to the season and you got a couple months off. Here there is no end of the season."

But he says that suits him just fine.