10 Times Wrestlers Secretly Went Undercover In Other Companies

Moose may never be a WWE Superstar and that's fine. He's thrived in IMPACT Wrestling for his entire seven-year stint, metamorphosising into a household name with the company and having been a former IMPACT World Champion, a role he may never have gotten had he went to WWE in 2021, as he revealed to Busted Open Radio was the original plan (h/t Wrestling Inc.):-

"I just re-signed with IMPACT in July I want to say, June or July, whenever, and I mean it was a hard decision because there were other offers. There was the chance for me to go to WWE, and AEW is out there. It's just one of those things. I am one of those guys where I have a set of goals I want to accomplish, and if I don't accomplish those goals it is not going to sit right with me [...] It just didn't sit right leaving to go somewhere else without accomplishing some of those goals."

2021 wasn't the only time Moose was intrigued by the potential of a WWE run, however, as he was said to have been backstage during NXT TakeOver: The End five years earlier. Although the reports claimed that the former NFL linesman was just visiting friends, one must consider WWE's approach to talent signing at the time. Vince McMahon's petulance for signing former sportspeople the ilk of Moose, and the fact that Eric Young and Robert Roode - who would sign for WWE - were also purportedly in the building are both factors that indicate Moose's Orlando trip was a business venture, scouting his options before he left ROH.

Moose would join IMPACT Wrestling the following month, in July, where he's stuck it out throughout two potential WWE-linked departures.