10 AEW Wrestlers You Won’t Believe WWE Passed On

2. Powerhouse Hobbs

Powerhouse Hobbs has featured weekly on Dynamite since hugely impressing Tony Khan in the 21-man Casino Battle Royale at the All Out pay-per-view. His showing in the Battle Royale quickly scored him a contract with AEW, as well as an alliance with Taz.

Before AEW, Hobbs was doing everything he could to get WWE to consider hiring him. He impressed in a dark match against Baron Corbin before an episode of SmackDown that earned him an official tryout. During it, he caught the attention of William Regal when cutting a promo from the heart about his real-life background.

For whatever reason WWE didn’t take it any further and it took two whole months afterwards for Hobbs to receive a rejection email from the company, stating they had nothing for him at that time. He did some extra work with WWE afterwards whenever they toured his hometown but they never seriously considered offering him a deal until he appeared on AEW television.

Hobbs spoke of the experience on the AEW Unrestricted Podcast:

“The try-out was good. Well, that was a long story, but I’ll give you the short story. They said we didn’t have anything for you right now, and then just years later, getting the carrot dangling in front of me, I pretty much told them FU. Right when I appeared up on AEW, ‘Hey, remember me?’ The way I was raised, I don’t got time for that s**t. I’m not ‘boo boo the fool’ as my Grandma would say. ‘Hey, we’ve been thinking about you and are interested in you.’ No, f**k you. I ain’t no sucka. I’d rather you tell me 100% no than try to BS me.