Chris Harris Discusses Why His Physique Changed In WWE

After mostly remaining silent about it for many years, "Wildcat" Chris Harris has finally addressed his WWE run. The TNA legend spoke to Conrad Thompson on "False Finish" after Bruce Prichard recently looked back at Harris' time as Braden Walker and said that he just couldn't do it. But according to the former NWA Tag Team Champion, the problems he faced were largely due to a lack of communication, and out of all these issues, one of the biggest was what WWE expected from Harris in terms of his look.

Unlike his leaner, more chiseled days earlier in his career, Harris thought that he needed to put on some size before arriving in WWE so he could stand toe-to-toe with the other big men like Big Show, Kane, and Mark Henry who dominated the promotion. Since no one told him otherwise as he spent time in FCW to prepare for his television debut, he chose to make changes that didn't pay off in the way he hoped.

"What people might be shocked to hear is that [it] was my choice [to put on more weight]," he said. "I didn't let myself go. Honestly, I was probably working out harder during this time than I ever had before because I did have that mentality... I will say maybe that was the wrong choice... I was changing my workout to where I could put on a lot more size than I had before. I got more on my gut than I wanted to, but I just felt like that it was something that I needed to do to try to get that attention."

Harris went on to say that John Laurinaitis eventually said something about how he could have maintained a leaner appearance like Edge, but it was already too late for both the character of Braden Walker and the wrestler portraying him. Unfortunately, due to such a poor experience in WWE, "Wildcat" lost his spark for the business.

"They just wanted to break me, which they did," he said. "I hate to admit that, but by the time I was out of WWE, they broke me. I lived for wrestling and I loved it and I had such a passion for it. And by the time I was out of there, man, my passion was shot."

Thankfully, that wasn't the end of his professional wrestling career. In a full circle moment, he was able to have one more match at Against All Odds 2022 when he reunited with Storm to team with The Good Brothers and Heath to uphold Impact Wrestling's honor by defeating Honor No More's Eddie Edwards, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Kenny King, and PCO.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit False Finish with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.