AEW Star Recalls Being Forgotten Member Of WWE’s Straight Edge Society
Years before he established himself as a tag team star as one-half of The Revival and FTR, Cash Wheeler made a cameo appearance at a non-televised WWE live event, where he had his head shaved by CM Punk. At the time, Punk was using a pair of clippers to indoctrinate unknown individuals from the audience as new members in his Straight Edge Society faction.
"(WWE) reached out like, 'Hey, how long is your hair?'" Wheeler recalled on The Sessions with Renee Paquette. "I'm like, 'Not that long, honestly. I just got it cut recently'. They're like, 'Okay, would you be willing to have it shaved?' And I was like, 'Uhh, yeah? When?' 'Tomorrow, in Carolina'. 'Yeah, sure'.
"So they want me to dress up like an extra like I'm in the crowd," Wheeler continued. "They put me front row, (Punk) comes out. Him and Gallows do their thing and I jump up and down to try and get noticed, they come over and bring me into the ring and shave my head."
Few fans likely remember Wheeler's entry into the Straight Edge Society. In fact, CM Punk himself didn't know that he once shaved the head of the future Cash Wheeler until he was recently reminded. The topic came up after Serena Deeb posted a picture of her televised head-shaving when she entered the Straight Edge Society.
"I was like, 'Oh man, I should tell Punk about this because I don't think he remembers and I've never brought it up to him'," Wheeler said. "Finally, I just sent him the pictures...He's like, 'Why have you never told me about this?' I was like, 'The time was right, you know?' So, yeah, I'm a member of the Straight Edge Society."
That was not the only time Cash Wheeler worked as an extra for WWE before he signed with the company. Wheeler says he was called upon many times.
"I was a paramedic for Mark Henry when he pulled the trucks," Wheeler recalled. "I was a cameraman when Mark Henry hit me with a chair, bag boy for Cody (Rhodes). Yeah, for Cody and Randy (Orton), I was the bag boy for their [Street Fight] match on SmackDown. It was a fantastic match. So like, for me, I love watching both those guys anyway, so getting to watch the match live – like, next to them, get to hear kind of how they're putting it together before I had any sort of TV experience, I was like, 'Woah, this is awesome.'"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Sessions with Renee Paquette with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.