10 Things You Didn't Know About James Ellsworth

6. Arn Anderson Gave Him His Big Opportunity

Before Ellsworth's big match against Braun Strowman on Raw, there were a variety of enhancement talents backstage. Arn Anderson watched Ellsworth throw a couple punches against one of the other jobbers in the ring, and told him that he thought they looked pretty good. He then called in Braun, and had him throw a couple punches at him. Anderson remained impressed, and that was enough to land Ellsworth his shot on Raw.

On Jericho's podcast, Ellsworth said that he'd wrestled around a bit in the ring before a few WWE shows, so maybe Arn remembered him from that, but he couldn't be sure. But just imagine if The Enforcer had simply chosen someone else to go on that night instead against Braun. The world's favorite jobber then may have never ended up getting his big shot, and someone else would have been put in that role who we likely would have already forgot.

Just think, Ellsworth didn’t have to take any bumps in the tryout, or even show that he could run the ropes or perform a snapmare takeover. He just threw a couple of worked punches, which were enough to land him on TV in front of millions of people. Those two hands change his life forever.