John Silver Says Being An Extra In WWE Means Nothing Unless You’re “6-foot-6 And Jacked”
John Silver has been teaming with Alex Reynolds for nearly a decade and they've performed in various promotions including WWE, EVOLVE and CZW. The team is now a part of AEW where they are members of The Dark Order and have battled The Young Bucks numerous times.
One of those recent matches had a bit of a scary scene as Reynolds was legitimately injured during the bout last October. Silver talked about his long-time partner getting hurt in the ring during an interview with Chris Van Vliet.
"I didn't know until Billy Gunn realized. I didn't see it happen; I think I was on the floor," Silver said of Reynolds getting hurt during a four-way tag match in October. "Alex was in the corner, so I go up to Alex and he was fine talking to me. We had to do something coming up in the match. Billy Gunn was like, 'Go check on him now.' I go up to Alex and say, 'Are you good?' and he's like 'Yeah I'm good.' But he's just laying there. I'm like OK this is our spot. Then he starts to get up and I realize 'Oh no, he isn't good.' But the way he was talking to me was fine. He wasn't slurring or anything weird.
"So, once he got moving, I could have grabbed him and done everything myself, but at that point he's up and he's there. It was so quick. I was going to try and tell Nick [Jackson] 'Hey he's messed up,' but at that point he's already doing everything. I think I said it as it's going on, but I don't know if he heard me. Nick realized pretty quick as it's going on that Alex is a little messed up there."
Reynolds was tended to ringside but was eventually able to walk to the back on his own. He and Silver first teamed together in 2011 but didn't join AEW until 2019. Silver discussed some of the various jobs he had when he joined AEW and prior to getting signed.
"When I got hired, I was working at a gym called Lifetime as a trainer. My girlfriend makes fun of me because I've had a million jobs. Since I was 18, I've worked in multiple pizza places, kickboxing instructor, multiple gyms," said Silver. "Basically, anything where I could make money but also get off so I can wrestle. I got lucky because Alex also worked at Lifetime but at a different location. I got hired because my boss used to wrestle and loved wrestling. He let me have the days off but I had to show up on the days I wasn't wrestling."
Also prior to AEW, Silver had a couple of matches in WWE as enhancement talent. He was first squashed by Ryback during a 2012 match, then squashed by Lars Sullivan in a 2018 match before coming up on the losing end of a tag match vs. Heavy Machinery in 2019.
Silver was asked if he ever thought his time in WWE would lead to something further with the promotion.
"No, because just the way that they do stuff. [In WWE] If you're an extra, that means nothing, unless you are an extra that's 6-foot-6 and jacked. If you're not, they don't care," stated Silver. "How many people have been signed because they got squashed and WWE liked that? I knew it wasn't very likely.
"Back in the day, they used to have you do matches during the day, and they would see if they liked you then. I've done extra work a bunch of times and I've had one match during the day against Alex. We had a good match; it went 5 minutes, but I'm looking around and I don't think anyone there is in a position to hire anyone. People said they liked it, but I never thought anything would come from it."
You can check out the full interview below: