AEW star Real1 aka Anthony Bowens recently spoke with Insight with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, Bowens revealed that he tried out for WWE in 2015. WWE told him a few years later that they were interested in signing him for the company in 2018, but he never heard back.
“So I had a tryout with them [WWE] in 2015 at the Arnold Classic. I did well enough there, they invited myself and Bianca [Belair] to the Performance Centre.
They told me ‘not right now, keep in touch’. I kept in touch and then randomly in 2017 I got hit up, ‘hey, we’re looking to bring you in 2018’.
So I started preparing I did the background, I did everything. The only thing I needed was just the contract, and it never came. And I would check in every six months, like hey, this is what you told me to work on’. Nothing. And then, budget issues. There’s no room, like how is there no room, you know, just hired 50 people, there’s clearly room. But they ghosted me really for three years.”
A few years later, he joined AEW and became a member of The Acclaimed, and WWE called once more.
“And then I did Dark, and then right after Dark, they hit me back up. They hit me back up and they asked if I was a free agent, which I said I was. They ended up offering me a contract. I said yes. But then they never sent me a contract.
And in that timeframe, Tony had found out and he wanted me to go meet with him. And unbeknownst to me, I guess something similar was happening with Caster. So I felt like well, you know, this is kind of the second time that this has happened, where I haven’t gotten what I needed to so I might as well hear this guy out.
So everything was just telling me I needed to go to AEW. So once they presented us with a contract, I signed it and I told WWE unfortunately I had to pass on their offer, I was never sent anything.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
