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AEW In a new Player’s Tribune article, AEW star Anthony Bowens opens up about what he called the ‘worst day of his life’ which included being rejected by WWE.
Anthony Bowens describes having multiple try outs with WWE (including being introduced to Triple H) but discovering he had one very integral element still missing.
Bowens wrote of his experience with WWE:
“I’ll never forget my first shot at a big break. It was in 2014 (yup! that long ago) and I was 23, about two years into my career. Back then the way it worked was that WWE would come to a town, and they’d book a bunch of indie guys from the area as extras on the show.
“Then they’d have those guys wrestle before the show in front of their agents and scouts and stuff. I got booked when they came to New York, and I won’t lie: I killed it. I got feedback like, “You did some things in there we’ll train guys 10 years before they know how to do.”
“I got introduced to Triple H at Raw the next night. I was texting people after, like, Damn. They’re introducing me to Hunter? This is really happening. I might have actually done it. I impressed them enough to get invited to a tryout a few months later in Ohio, then impressed them enough at that tryout to get invited to the Performance Center for a few days.
“At the Performance Center, I killed it again. I’m not even bragging — I’ve just always been a good athlete, and the in-ring stuff always felt natural to me.
“But then I had to cut a promo…”
Bowens would go on to describe how authenticity plays a huge role in a successful promo and at that time in his life, still not ‘out of the closet’ within the wrestling space, he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin.
Going on to describe what happened, Bowens wrote:
“So I botched my tryout promos pretty badly. I remember William Regal telling me I had “four out of five” traits they’re looking for in a prospect. The only trait where I was falling short was “personality.”
“Which is funny to think about on some level — like, only in wrestling could a potential employer turn you down by saying, Come back when you have a personality!! But that’s more or less what happened.
“An hour after getting a no from WWE in an email, I found out that my grandmother (I called her Nana) had passed away. She was one of the most important people in my world, and that still ranks as the worst day of my life.”
Bowens went on in the article to describe the realization that until he was able to share all of himself, he wouldn’t be able to be the compelling performer we now know him as.
In the article, he thanked AEW’s fans for supporting him to be authentically him ahead of The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass’ big return to Arthur Ashe Stadium for Dynamite Grand Slam.
You can keep up with all the latest news from around AEW including the Grand Slam editions of Dynamite and Rampage set to tape tonight by clicking this link.
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