Erick Rowan On WWE Calling Him For A Recent Appearance, What Happened With The Spider Cage Storyline
Former WWE Superstar Erick Rowan, now using the name Erick RedBeard, spoke with Sportskeeda for a Q&A on Instagram earlier today and indicated that WWE recently called him for a special appearance in the Wyatt Swamp Fight between Bray Wyatt and WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman at WWE's "The Horror Show at Extreme Rules" last month.
Rowan, who was released on April 15 a part of the company-wide cuts brought on by COVID-19 after being with WWE since 2011, noted that he was too busy with filming another project. There had been speculation on Rowan appearing in the Swamp Fight based on teasers in the promos leading up to the match.
"There may have been a chance I was given a call and there may have been a chance I was busy filming. So, there's a high probability that I just wasn't able to fulfill their inquest," Rowan said when asked if WWE tried to book him for a cameo in the Wyatt Swamp Fight.
Rowan also discussed the mystery pet cage angle that WWE had him work on RAW shortly before his release. Rowan carried the covered cage for a few months and it ended up being revealed that he was carrying around a large spider, which was fake. WWE Champion Drew McIntyre destroyed the spider one week after it was revealed, smashing the pet cage with the steel ring steps.
Rowan said the original plans called for a rodent or a rat to be inside the cage. The idea was that the rat would be killed by a babyface champion, to show that Rowan cared about something. Rowan recalled how WWE kept extending the storyline but he tried to pitch new ideas the whole time. He commented on how they put all that build into something so trivial, and the day they were going to reveal the spider was "kinda sucky" for him.
Rowan said he sent numerous messages to then-RAW Executive Director Paul Heyman and the other WWE writers, writing out long ideas for what he thought the storyline should be. Rowan noted that he had several over the top ideas for the reveal, including one idea based off the world's smallest woman that was featured on American Horror Story. Rowan had an idea where they would build a slightly larger pet cage, and the "little woman" would be inside of it. Rowan and the little woman would have become friends, in a relationship where Rowan locked the woman in the cage to protect her from the atrocities of the outside world. Rowan believed this would have shown a different side to his character, playing off how he was a large man and this was a small, delicate woman he was protecting. On the day where they decided McIntyre would destroy the spider, Rowan said he wrote a long e-mail to Heyman to pitch another idea where there was no animal inside the cage, but the "worst fear" of anyone who looked in it. This was a play off how Mojo Rawley and No Way Jose had been terrified when they saw inside of the cage.
Rowan has been taking indie bookings via Josephruud06@gmail.com since his 90-day non-compete clause expired on July 15. He's also working on non-wrestling projects.
Stay tuned for updated on RedBeard's future. You can see the full Instagram Q&A below: