James Ellsworth Talks Vince McMahon Searching For Him After His Match, Favorite Stars To Work With
Former WWE Superstar James Ellsworth was the special guest on last week's The Taz Show, and James talked about a wide range of topics. Ellsworth began describing how he was given his opportunity in the WWE, and later talked about his relationship with Carmella, and who he liked working with the most in the company.
"I was an extra talent that day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 25th 2016 and obviously, you've been there", Ellsworth said, while recollecting the events on the day he faced Strowman. "As an extra talent, you don't know what's going to happen that day. You could do nothing or you could do a match, or just be a security guard, or (be) a Rosebud or whatever. They picked me to do the match with Strowman that night. It was the start of his singles push out of The Wyatt Family and (I) did a match against him. I got to do like a twenty second promo before the match and did the match and from there it just escalated."
Taz then asked Ellsworth about who he met after the match, and was surprised to know that it was none other than Vince McMahon himself that asked for the Superstar.
"Absolutely. Right after the match, Arn Anderson, who was the agent for the match, told me Vince was looking for me. I said, "Oh really? Why would he be looking for me? What did I do wrong?" I found Vince and he was coming down the stairs there outside of Gorilla looking for me and I found him. He said, "Hey, I just wanted to tell you that you did a very good job. I was very pleased with that. Thank you!" I was like, "Huh?" Jericho called me that night, and I told him about that and he told me the same thing (about Vince McMahon rarely thanking someone), and told me the same thing on his podcast as well. It just doesn't happen a lot. To me it was out of nowhere. I didn't expect it and very, very cool. I'll never forget that moment, for sure."
Ellsworth further elaborated on his relationship with Vince, and how he was very approachable.
"Oh yeah, absolutely. Whenever I got the chance to talk to him, which wasn't often, but every time after a segment or a match, I would walk up to him at the Gorilla and thank him for the opportunity, and he'd shake my hand. Other than that, we talked a handful of times in the office. I didn't try to bother him too much, and it was always very positive."
Taz then brought up Ellsworth's on-screen relationship with Carmella, and James dwelt on how the former SmackDown Women's Champion took care of the minute details, to help evolve her character.
"Oh yeah, absolutely. We became friends because of that angle and we always had a good time working together. I always tell people she's very smart, very intelligent girl. I've always had a good time with her, never any problems whatsoever.
"Just the small things, she recently dyed her hair. She had a long run as SmackDown Live Women's Champion for a few months and now that's over with and right away she did something different and dyed her hair just to get eyes on her. That was very smart."
James also mentioned that he was willing to do whatever WWE asked him to, and said that the door was open for him to go back down the line.
"Absolutely, I was willing to do what they asked me to do. Obviously you always want to do more and evolve your character, and I'd pitch ideas and I'd try not to get too comfortable with it, which I might have. But I always enjoyed my time there for sure, and every idea they gave me, I just tried to do it to the best of my ability.
"I have a good relationship with them as of now. I'm not contracted, but the relationship's there, and the door is open to come back and do more stuff."
Ellsworth returned to WWE programming briefly earlier this year, and helped Carmella defeat Asuka to retain the title. Ellsworth also mentioned that he and Carmella stay in touch, and gave props to The Princess of Staten Island for her work.
"We'll text here and there. She's busy working all the time. She's on every loop, every house show, every TV. Once every other week I'll catch up with her and we'll talk about what's going on. Yeah man, we're friends. I'm so happy for her. She just went through the Performance Center there. She's a product of that and just to see her involve and get better each and every time she's out there; it's really cool to see when you worked that closely with someone for a long extended period of time. Just to see her doing well, I'm very happy for her."
Taz then asked James Ellsworth where he had the most fun, the WWE or on the independents, and Ellsworth then revealed who he loved working with the most.
"In WWE, I loved doing stuff with AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. Every autograph session I do, obviously people bring up Carmella; but, they always bring up the AJ Styles/Dean Ambrose stuff. That was so fun, just being in the middle of that rivalry between them two. On the indies, I love working with Jerry Lawler, doing the intergender title stuff. I have this Intergender Title where I work with the girls on the indies coming off the stuff I did on WWE television. I just love to perform, doesn't matter which level. I just love to do it."
You can listen to the entire podcast episode below.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Taz Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.