WWE was once Wardlow’s selected destination but the company opted not to bring him in.
Wardlow has been signed to All Elite Wrestling since mid-2019. He’s been paired with MJF since arriving to AEW TV and throughout his run in the company thus far, Wardlow has tallied up a 40-7 win-loss record.
In past media appearances, he spoke about the tryout he had with WWE and the fallout from that opportunity. WWE opted not to sign Wardlow and he told Chris Van Vliet how confident he was that the company was going to bring him in. As of their interview recording, he feels that today, a “certain individual” there would look at him and think he’s one of their guys, but added that WWE had their shot.
I always believed I was going to walk into the front door of WWE and they were going to say, ‘What took you so long? Get over here!’ So I don’t want to sound cocky, but I was confident years ago and it didn’t happen. But I still feel like a certain individual in that company would go, ‘Oh, you are my guy!’ I feel I would be right up their alley of what their cookie cutter wrestler would be, but hey, they had their shot.
The January 12th installment of AEW Dynamite featured a singles match between CM Punk and Wardlow. Up until the match, outside of the Dynamite Diamond Ring Battle Royal, Wardlow had not lost a match since August 2021.
He explained how excited he was to share the ring with CM Punk and said it was the most nervous he’s ever been before a match.
Dude, honestly I am still waking up every morning feeling like I hit the lottery. It brought such a sense of peace and fulfilment over me. Those big matches, I am usually very focused and very tense and it’s hard to be around me. This time, I wasn’t at all, and I think it was because I didn’t believe it. I’m like, ‘I’m not wrestling CM Punk in 3 days.’ So it’s just another normal day. Then the day of the show, it all hit me like ok, this is happening. That was possibly the most nervous I have ever been before a match, but it was also the most comfortable I have been. But the fact I got to wrestle CM Punk, that’s something I thought that I would never be able to do.
Recently, Wardlow weighed in on the ‘AEW four pillars’ conversation and questioned why he isn’t considered one of the pillars. To read what Wardlow had to say on the matter, check out POST Wrestling’s coverage of his comments.
