After competing in several other independent promotions, he participated in the 2015 WWE reality show Tough Enough, a series focused on finding new wrestlers.

Despite being tapped as one of the favorites to win the competition, he was eliminated in the fifth episode due to a perceived lack of humility, placing ninth overall in the series.

[7] He made his in-ring debut for the company at a NXT live event in Lakeland, Florida on February 5, 2016, losing to Riddick Moss.

[11] On the May 3, 2017 episode of NXT, Clark started appearing in weekly vignettes, debuting a new Prince-inspired character called Velveteen Dream.

[15][16] On the December 6 episode of NXT, Dream was supposed to face Kassius Ohno in a qualifying match for a number one contender's fatal-four-way match for the NXT Championship; however, an injury kept Dream out of competition, and he was replaced by Johnny Gargano, who defeated Ohno and later won the fatal-four way to become the number one contender.

[17] On the January 10, 2018 episode of NXT, Dream interrupted Gargano to mock him for taking 20 minutes to defeat Ohno, claiming that he could've beaten him in "30 seconds tops.

[28][29] On February 2, 2019, at Royal Rumble Axxess, Dream entered the 2019 Worlds Collide tournament,[30] in which he defeated Tony Nese in the first round, Humberto Carrillo in the quarterfinals, Jordan Devlin in the semifinals, and Tyler Bate in the final to earn a future singles championship match of his choice on the NXT or NXT UK brands.

[35][36] In the following weeks, he went on to successfully defend the title against challengers including Buddy Murphy, Tyler Breeze, Roderick Strong, and Pete Dunne.

[37][38] On the September 18 episode of NXT, he lost the title to Roderick Strong after interference from The Undisputed Era, ending his reign at 231 days.

[41] Following several months off after an injury related to a car accident,[42] Dream returned on the August 12 episode of NXT, where he lost to Cameron Grimes in a triple threat match also involving Kushida.

[49] On February 18, 2024, Clark made his return to wrestling after over 3 years for the promotion The Dynasty in a surprise appearance, now going by Velveteen Man, a tweaked version of his WWE ring name.

[50] His successful return match at Dynasty: It Was All A Dream in which he defeated Alec Odin marked the final use of his WWE NXT ring name.

The character was described by WWE as a "mysterious yet intoxicating presence [...] sporting a frilled, jewelled look that would have fit right in onstage during Prince's Purple Rain Tour".