Several years ago, Alexander Hammerstone came close to signing with WWE after participating in several tryouts.
During a recent appearance on the “Talk is Jericho” podcast, the reigning MLW World Champion commented on his three tryouts with WWE, being invited to sign with the NXT brand before the offered was rescinded because the company had overhired.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his early interactions with WWE: “I had a handful of interactions with them [WWE]. The first one was like early, early on. I’m talking, I had maybe had five matches. But my trainer at our wrestling school, he was a blonde, jacked guy and when I showed up it was like, ‘This guy’s gonna be a star!’ And he got my 8x10s, and he had kind of a little bit of a foot in the door with WWE. So he sent their talent relations guy my promo package and was like, ‘This guy’s gonna be it, you get him before he blows up.’ And they didn’t get me extra work or anything like that; they said, ‘Okay, bring him out for a tryout.’
“I was not ready for it. I didn’t know what to expect, I did not have a wrestling mind developed. I was confident in the way I looked and thought I could kinda cut a promo. But I didn’t really know what I was doing. And I didn’t cut the mustard as far as what they were looking for physically. I didn’t realize how brutal those tryouts were. That first time I went out there was kind of a wakeup call. But then they called me back a couple years later and now this time I was like, I trained my ass off for it. I showed up, I killed all the drills, I was a machine. But they were still like, ‘You know what, we’re waiting for you to build up your name more.’”
On his third tryout: “They brought me for a third tryout. And this was, had to be 2018, 2017… This last tryout, at this point I had been wrestling for a long time, I had a lot more experience, I’d been to a couple different places. And not only that, I walked into this tryout and now a lot of the coaches knew me, and a lot of the signed talent on the roster I had been friends with and worked shows with. So it felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of football players and indie guys. And then it was like, ‘Oh, I have more of a relationship with these guys,’ for whetever that was worth. And it was just a truly bizarre experience because like, I was in great shape, smoking all the drills. But also, Ryan Katz is coming over and like, ‘Hey, they wanted me to film something with you. We’re filming stuff for the WWE website.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, this is looking good.’
“And then we have the day were we did did the weight room stuff. And after the workout, we’re all just standing around and the strength coach comes over and says ‘Listen, if you really want to be a wrestler, you’ve got to train a lot more like that guy.’ And he points to me, and I’m like, ‘Oh crap, I don’t want this heat!’ But everyone was just giving me this huge rub. And they give us promos which — I cut my promo and I’m walking back to my seat. And William Regal grabs me by the wrist and he goes, ‘That was a promo.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, everything is looking good.’ Match day comes, and they put me with a pretty green kid and I think they knew that. And I feel like I led this kid through a very acceptable match. The last day, everyone’s kind of gathered around and they’re giving their spiel… I’m walking back to grab my bags, and Canyon [Ceman] who’s kind of head of talent at the time, says, ‘Hey Hammer, Hammer!’ I walk back and he says ‘Hey, can you pass your drug test in two weeks?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah. I can pass my drug test right now. ‘Okay, okay good. We’ll be in touch.’”
On getting invited and uninvited to join WWE NXT: “They first sent me the email, like, ‘You’ve been chosen to join NXT. We’re gonna bring you out in probably May or June. We gotta to get this process rolling and plan to be here by June.’ So this was about November. So I start filling out paperwork, we go through my background check, everything is going great. I move out of my house that I’m living in, I move back in with my mom. I’m like ‘Mom, I have to stay here for a couple months before I move to Florida.’ I tell everyone I know I’m signed to WWE.
“And then it’s like April at this point. And I’m like ‘Hey, we still haven’t done the physical. I’m wondering when that’s going to get scheduled.’ And then I get an email back saying ‘Unfortunately, NXT is overstaffed. We’ve hired too many people, and our budget isn’t allowing us to bring anybody in right now. We’ll be in touch down the line.’ And I’m like ‘What does that mean?’ And it just fizzled out, just like that. And that was the biggest kick in the dick I’ve ever had in wrestling. Like, I really try to keep a positive mindset. And even to this day, I don’t look back on that like ‘Oh those assholes!’ I understand the business. But at that time man, that crushed me.”
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(h/t – 411 Wrestling)