Titus O’Neil has been part of a national championship football program at Florida, been a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, won the WWE tag team titles and performed around the world, but he’s about to embark on what he calls “one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”

O’Neil has been selected to speak at the prestigious TEDxUCLA conference on May 20, the first time a WWE performer has done a TED Talk.

But you won’t see the name “Titus O’Neil” on the agenda.

Thaddeus Bullard, the man behind the character Titus O’Neil, will use his time to talk about what he calls the “domino effect of advocacy.”

“It’s based on whether someone wants to be the positive domino in someone else’s life,” Bullard recently told For The Win. “It’s going to be taking my real life story and placing some of the advocates within my life and how it changed my way of thinking, my mode of operation as well as my ability to see things from a different perspective. …

“I want to illustrate how my life has gone, why it’s gone in the direction it’s gone, where it started, how it arrived at this point and how that process can be echoed by people from all around the world and all walks of life regardless of race or gender or nationality or sexual orientation or religion.”

For Bullard, that life story begins even before he was born with a decision made by his mother.

“People invested in me when they had nothing to gain in return,” he said. “Every day is an opportunity to return the favor for others. I just turned 40 last weekend, and as I told my family and friends and my mother at my birthday party, it started with my mother making an unselfish decision to have me despite being raped and having me at 12 years old despite the wishes of many people.

“My life wasn’t given to me for no reason. I look to be a blessing to as many people as possible as I can while I’m here because I wasn’t supposed to be here to start with. Now that I am, I embrace the opportunity while I’m on this earth.”

Titus O’Neil (Photo: WWE)

At first glance, you might think a WWE performer is an unconventional choice for a TED Talk.

“I like that you might not think someone from WWE would be at a Tier 1 university doing a TED Talk and that’s all the better reason to have him do it,” said Scott Hutchinson, director of UCLA’s Visual Arts Program and one of the lead organizers for TEDxUCLA. “Ideas come from everywhere, well beyond the small walls of universities.”

Bullard was initially introduced to the curators through Julie Sina, an associate vice chancellor at UCLA who worked at Florida when Bullard was a student and served as student body vice president. That first exposure was several years ago.

“Reaction to me possibly doing this was not as well received because of the field that I’m in,” he said. “It comes with certain stereotypes being in WWE. Over a period of time and them monitoring the product of WWE, but also what I do individually both inside and outside of WWE, they felt like maybe we can give this a try.”

Hutchinson said Bullard immediately impressed the curators with a story about a homeless couple whom he passed on the street while on the road. Instead of walking by or giving them money, Bullard sat with them and eventually took them to dinner.

Bullard is involved in a number of humanitarian projects. He was the United States ambassador for Pay It Forward Day recently, hosts an annual Joy of Giving event, won the 2015 MEGA Dad Award as “Celebrity Dad of the Year,” was part of the University of Florida’s Gator Good campaign and works with multiple non-profit organizations. He also is part of WWE community initiatives such as the Be A Star anti-bullying campaign and WWE’s partnership with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization.

“People talking about things and doing things are totally different,” Hutchinson said, noting that many speaker pitches reflect the former. “He does the stuff he talks about and has data from it. He knows what works and what doesn’t and that it has to scale to have an effect. He actually volunteers and gets involved and sits down with people in need and learns from them. It’s so far beyond lending his name. He dives into the deep end on these issues.”

As Hutchinson points out, Bullard’s talk is not about himself. That he has a worldwide platform via WWE is just an entry point.

“His work and his celebrity are good vehicles to talk about and to drive some of his ideas,” Hutchinson said. “But it’s a talk about how he uses the strengths he has and the convictions he has to inspire others and treat people more humanely and look at humans as humans and look at issues that seem intractable. It’s inspiring to be around people like him and it’s his actions that inspire others to take action.”

Preparation for a TED Talk involves month of coaching even for someone who delivers promos on live television in front of millions. Bullard was chosen to be a speaker last August and said he hopes to use his 18 allotted minutes to hit on the three pillars of TED Talks – educate, entertain and inspire.

While the venue on the UCLA campus holds 1,800 people, many TED Talks are shown worldwide, translated into other languages, and can grow organically to thousands and even millions of viewers.

“I hope people leave there with a greater understanding of how powerful they can be regardless of the field they are in or what platform they have,” Bullard said. “We all have the ability to positively change the culture and the environment and the communities we live in.”

Around the ring

• WWE has based much of the promotion for the May 21 Smackdown-brand pay-per-view Backlash around the in-ring debut of Shinsuke Nakamura, who faces Dolph Ziggler. Other matches set are WWE champion Randy Orton against Jinder Mahal, United States champion Kevin Owens against A.J. Styles and Smackdown tag team champions The Usos against Breezango. Two likely matches: a women’s six-person match with Naomi, Charlotte and Becky Lynch against the Welcoming Committee (Natalya, Tamina and Carmella) and Baron Corbin against Sami Zayn.
• Chris Jericho’s beatdown at the hands of Kevin Owens on Smackdown Live this week provides a means for WWE to write off Jericho from TV while he tours with his band Fozzy. Fozzy has a busy May along with a few dates set for early in June. This 16-month return to WWE has been among Jericho’s best since he stopped working a year-round schedule.
• During a conference call with investors this week, WWE executives did not have a timetable for the planned weekly WWE Network show featuring performers from the United Kingdom. WWE chief revenue and marketing officer Michelle Williams said the program remains “absolutely on our development schedule.” The 32-woman tournament remains on track for this summer, Wilson said.
• Cruiserweight T.J. Perkins will use TJP as his ring name, mirroring one of several names he used during his time with Impact Wrestling. Perkins primarily wrestled under a mask for Impact as Manik.