10 Things You Didn't Know About The WWE Stable Maximum Male Models

May 2024 · 6 minute read

There are a number of gimmicks that seem to work throughout wrestling history. Alongside “evil rich guy” is “self-absorbed model,” a persona used by Rick Martel, Tyler Breeze and, most recently, the faction Maximum Male Models. Composed of Ma.çé (formerly Mace), Mån.sôör (formerly Mansoor), and their manager, Maxxine Dupri — though she’s been hanging out more with Alpha Academy as of late — MMM have been a consistently entertaining yet underrated part of WWE.RELATED: 10 Model Gimmicks In Pro Wrestling, Ranked Maximum Male Models are basically undercarders, so many fans likely don’t think about them much, which means there’s a whole lot about the performers they don’t know about. Let’s take a look at 10 things about MMM, including their pre-WWE notoriety and what they were up to in developmental.

10 Ma.çé Has A Background In Football

While he may be a model — at least for now — Ma.çé actually has a background not uncommon in pro wrestling: American football. The son of Brent Williams, who played for the NFL in the 1980s and 1990s, young Brennan Williams followed in his father’s footsteps, playing for University of North Carolina’s Tar Heels in college. After graduating in 2012, Williams went pro, with stints in the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and New England Patriots before moving on to pro wrestling in 2015.

9 Mån.sôör Wrestled On The Indies

Meanwhile, Mån.sôör entered WWE with a background that’s very common these days: performing on the independent wrestling scene. With training from Hoodslam’s The Stoner Brothers, the future Mån.sôör — often wrestling under the ring name of Manny Faberino — debuted in 2015 and wrestled in various Northern California promotions including Hoodslam. However, many WWE fans first saw him at the first Saudi Arabia show, Greatest Royal Rumble, where he was unveiled as one of several Saudi wrestlers who took part in a WWE tryout in the city of Jeddah.

8 Ma.çé Was Trained By Booker T

When his football career didn’t pan out, Brennan Williams made the switch to pro wrestling, seeking training from WWE legend Booker T, who also trained current NXT star Roxanne Perez. As one might expect, the future Ma.çé performed for Booker’s promotion, Reality of Wrestling, where he wore kabuki face paint and wrestled as Marcellus Black.

RELATED: 10 Things WWE Fans Need To Know About NXT's Roxanne Perez

As Marcellus Black, Williams only wrestled for ROW for about five months before taking part in a WWE tryout in early 2016. Six months later, Williams moved on to training at the WWE Performance Center as a new signee to the company.

7 Maxxine Dupri Was A Cheerleader & Dancer

Like Ma.çé, Maximum Male Models’ manager, Maxxine Dupri, also started out in professional sports, albeit not as a competitor but rather as a cheerleader and dancer. Otherwise known as Sydney Zmrzel, the future Maxxine Dupri cheered on professional teams like the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and the NBA’s Phoenix Suns as both teams made it to the championship games of their respective sports, albeit neither were able to win. In 2021, Zmrzel took part in a WWE tryout in Las Vegas, earning a contract and following in the footsteps of other cheerleaders turned wrestlers.

6 Mån.sôör Trolled Shia LaBeouf’s Livestream

Mån.sôör’s first WWE appearance was in 2018, but he already had a notoriety among meme-obsessed weirdos on sites like 4chan. The year prior, controversial actor Shia LaBeouf and some artists put together an art installation called He Will Not Divide Us, a 24/7 livestream that ran for four years that anyone could participate in if they happened to be outside of New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image. Mån.sôör decided to take part as a goof, singing the theme song to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. His long hair, beard, and eye patch led viewers to refer to him as “Punished Jesus,” a reference to Punished Snake from Metal Gear Solid 5.

5 Ma.çé Worked A Lenny Kravitz Gimmick In NXT

Before becoming a male model of maximum status, Ma.çé has worked a number of gimmicks in WWE, including Mace of Retribution and Raw color commentator Dio Maddin. Before even those runs, however, he had a very different gimmick during his time in NXT. Because he had a vague resemblance to Lenny Kravitz, Ma.çé worked a gimmick based on the fame rock star, wearing denim as his ring gear and sitting in the corner, Raven style. In retrospect, it seemed very Orange Cassidy-like, and he even briefly referred to himself as “The King of Sit Style.”

4 Maxxine Dupri Owns Her Own Clothing Boutique

It’s not uncommon for many WWE stars to have side hustles that don’t involve wrestling. For example, Bianca Belair makes her own clothing, and Maxxine Dupri similarly has a fashion-based side business in the form of a boutique called Jaunty, which aims to sell clothing of a wide variety of body types.

RELATED: 10 Current Wrestlers Who Have A Side Job While Still Wrestling

Founded in 2019, Jaunty was initially an online-only endeavor, but its success led Maxxine Dupri to open up a physical location in 2021, which is currently located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

3 Ma.çé & Mån.sôör Had A Twitch Stream With Shane Thorne

Loads of WWE stars had Twitch streams going before the promotion pulled the plug on the practice in 2020, including Ma.çé & Mån.sôör during their time in developmental. Alongside fellow NXT star Shane Thorne (now known as Shane Haste in New Japan), the trio were known as The Insiderz, and regularly had fellow NXT talent on the air to take part. While it didn’t have the huge following other wrestler streams had, The Insiderz offered some fun antics like Rhea Ripley chopping the boys every time someone donated to the stream or Shayna Baszler legitimately knocking out Mån.sôör with a sleeper hold.

2 Maxxine Dupri Had A Different Character On NXT

Fans who kept up with NXT likely noticed that Maxxine Dupri looked very familiar when she debuted on SmackDown. That’s because, in the months prior to her main roster appearance, she was already appearing on NXT as manager Sofia Cromwell, who was working with fellow manager Mr. Stone in handling monster heel Von Wagner. Once she moved on to Maximum Male Models, she was quickly written off with a line of dialogue about how Wagner’s disposition scared her off to go work with models instead.

1 Ma.çé & Mån.sôör Are Into Anime & Video Games

Given the whole Snake Eater thing, it should come as no surprise that Mån.sôör is into video games, and his tag team partner Ma.çé is similarly into video games and anime. During his time in WWE, Ma.çé has worn his influences on his sleeve, as his old ring name Dio Maddin was a reference to Dio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and his signature, the Nico Nico Knee, was a reference to Love Live!. In fact, an episode of the YouTube show WWE Fandom had the pair and Shane Thorne visiting Jacksonville’s anime and pop culture convention WasabiCon.

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