Mojo Rawley Addresses Why The New WES Promotion Fell Apart

Despite a lot of hype, the heavily anticipated debut show for the Authors of Pains' Wrestling Entertainment Series (WES) promotion was canceled following controversy over pay and talent being advertised, despite not being set to appear. Dean Muhtadi — formerly known as WWE's Mojo Rawley — was slated to be involved with WES, but felt that it was "just too big of a goal too quick."

"I know where they were trying to go ... we were thrilled with the opportunity that was at hand," Muhtadi told Wrestling Inc. in an exclusive interview. "They had some great financial backers, a great vision for the product — it actually went pretty hand in hand with a lot of the visions that Steve [Kaye] and I had for professional wrestling and the impact where we would have liked to have to have seen it go. We loved the fact that this was going to be a traveling show, one promotion that traveled the world internationally and hit some markets that are frequently traveled and exhausted by all the other wrestling promotions."

The original WES show was set to take place in Nottingham, England, but Muhtadi revealed that wasn't the plan at first. 

"They wanted to hit the Middle East. There was plans for Dubai and Istanbul and some of these other places ... bringing in celebrities like Alistair Overeem to train to compete in the right settings with no handcuffs on. The direction was really pretty cool, we loved the concept behind it. It was just one series of unfortunate events after another," he said. "We are talking like deaths of country's rulers that thrust the country into mandatory shutdown of events as per the mourning period, into pivoting to a different country on literally one day's notice."

While WES was heavily criticized by fans and some of those who were supposedly involved, including former WWE Superstar Nia Jax, the promotion did promise that there are still plans in place for future events. However, those plans haven't been announced. 

"I've talked to those guys. They plan on doing more shows, or having a show I guess you could say. But finding a time to make this work, I don't know where they stand with that currently," Muhtadi revealed. "But it would be interesting. But man I can tell you the thought process behind it, and of course, I am only saying part of their plans. They had some cool surprises lined up too. It was a really cool concept."

Muhtadi was in England when the first WES show was supposed to happen. Following its cancelation, he put on a free meet-and-greet for the fans who were supposed to attend the event.

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