Hammerstone Recalls WWE Offering And Then Rescinding NXT Opportunity
Things are going pretty good for Alexander Hammerstone, who has now held the MLW World Heavyweight Championship for over a year. But there's an alternate universe where Hammerstone never set foot in MLW and instead found himself in WWE. During an appearance on "Talk is Jericho," Hammerstone revealed that WWE approached him for tryouts several times before his MLW stint. And while the first two didn't lead to anything, the third one very nearly did.
"They brought me for a third tryout in 2018/2017," Hammerstone told host Chris Jericho. "At this point, I had a lot more experience. Not only that, I walked into this tryout, and now a lot of the coaches and signed talent knew me. It was a truly bizarre experience, because I was in great shape, smoking all the drills, and Ryan Katz is coming over and saying '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.'"
By the time Hammerstone's third WWE tryout was over, his hiring seemed like a foregone conclusion.
"They did the weight room stuff, and after the workout, the strength coach comes over and says 'Listen, if you really want to be wrestlers, you've got to train a lot more like that guy,' and he points to me," Hammerstone said. "They gave us promos. I cut mine, I'm walking back to my seat, and William Regal grabs me by the wrist and goes, 'That was a promo.' Match day comes, they put me with a pretty green kid. I feel like I led this kid through a very acceptable match. [After the tryout], I'm walking back to grab my bags, and Canyon [Ceman], the head of talent at the time, says, 'Hammer! Can you pass your drug test in two weeks?' I'm like, 'Yeah. I can pass my drug test right now. 'Okay, good. We'll be in touch.'"
How Close Did Hammerstone Get?
Hammerstone was in the final stages of joining WWE when everything changed.
"They sent an email saying 'You've been chosen to join NXT,'" Hammerstone said. "'We have to get this process moving. Plan to be here by June.' This was November. I start filling out paperwork, we go through my background check, everything is going great. I move out of my house, 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.
"Then it's April. I'm like 'Hey, we still haven't done the physical. I wonder when that's going to get scheduled.' 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.' I'm like 'What does that mean?' And it just fizzled out, just like that. That was the biggest kick in the dick I've ever had in wrestling."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription