James Ellsworth On Which Star Invited Him To Dress With Other Talent, Pitching Ideas When Released
As noted, former WWE Superstar James Ellsworth was a guest on Talk Is Jericho. Among other things, Ellsworth talked about whether he ever thought he would be signed by WWE, whether he has any regrets about his 16-month WWE run, when he stopped dressing in the locker room for extras, and feeding lines to JBL on commentary.
According to Ellsworth, he never thought he was going to get signed by WWE.
"Up until the day I got signed [by WWE] l never thought it was going to happen," Ellsworth admitted. "I never thought it was going to happen. Even after the Braun Strowman thing, even after coming in a few times, working with AJ [Styles], because when I was working with AJ, I still wasn't signed yet. Yeah, they signed me at the Survivor Series 2016. That's when it became official."
Although Ellsworth would have liked to have done more during his WWE run, he had a lot of fun living his dream.
"I'm appreciative of all the opportunities I got. I had a blast. I loved it. I loved every moment of it. The glass is kind of half full because I'm not content. It was great. I got to do a lot of cool stuff while I was there," Ellsworth continued, "but am I content with the run? No. I would have liked to have done more. I still would like to do more, but I had fun."
During the podcast, Ellsworth shared that Bray Wyatt invited him to dress in the WWE talent dressing room as opposed to the dressing room for extras.
"Bray Wyatt's like, 'yeah, Ellsworth, stop dressing in that extra talent dressing room. I was wrestling AJ [Styles] for the world title and I was still dressing in the extra talent dressing room! I didn't want to make anyone mad about walking into the WWE locker room." Ellsworth added, "so Bray Wyatt was the one to say, 'no, you're with us now.' He was the one. And I think when I got released, I texted him, 'hey man, you're the one who did this for me and I won't forget that.'"
Also, Ellsworth divulged that he used to feed JBL lines for commentary when the former world champion called SmackDown Live.
"People would say to me all the time, 'man, that stuff they say about you on commentary, doesn't that bother you?' I'm like, 'no, I know what I am! Every circus needs a clown' and I understood it the whole time." Ellsworth boasted, "I've been called every name in the book and I've never minded a word of it! They'd say something about me on Twitter and I'd retweet it and get them right back and people would share 'burned' and all. Sometimes I would help JBL with his lines. He would jokingly say, 'Ellsworth, I'm running out of things to call you!' I'm like, 'just call me a garden gnome that got run over by a lawnmower! I don't know!' I didn't care!"
On the subject of being released by WWE, Ellsworth recalled that WWE VP of Talent Relations Mark Carrano told him that he was being 'future endeavored' because the run ran its course and 'The Chinless Wonder' averred that he still had interesting places to go with his character, including 205 Live.
"He's like, 'hey, I've got some news for you' and as soon as he said that, my heart dropped and I'm like, 'is it what I think it is?' When he says that? And I like Mark. He was great to me while I was there and that [has] got to be a hard job." Ellsworth remembered, "and it's just like, 'they've decided to let you go for now.' And I'm like, 'huh? Well, why?' And he's just like, 'I think they felt like it ran its course.' And to me, I'm like, 'well..' and I start spitting out ideas. I'm like, 'well, can't I go to 205 Live? And like, [Carmella] still has the [Money In The Bank] briefcase!' Well, that's my first, initial reaction, like, 'no, there's so much more left I can do' and I still feel that way."
Don't be a stupid idiot – check out the podcast here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho