10 Weirdest WWE Tryout Stories
See what goes behind a WWE tryout - as revealed by these ten accomplished stars.
Every aspiring professional wrestler will have the ambition to compete inside a WWE ring and officially call themselves a WWE Superstar - but it's not an easy task to achieve. The company is also on the constant lookout for prospective talent, and creates several developmental systems to recruit and train wrestlers from all over the globe. Many superstars on the current roster and even legendary names came into the company from one of these platforms.
While WWE has platforms like NXT, WWE ID, WWE NIL, and WWE LFG at present, back in the day, they had developmental territories like FCW, OVW, and DSW, where they conducted tryout camps to find recruits.
Tryouts can be exciting and terrifying for the wrestlers, and each talent will have different stories to share. Some might share their success stories, some might share how they got rejected, some might share the valuable experiences they gained, some might share funny incidents, and some might share the humiliations they faced.
The stories of these ten accomplished wrestlers are combinations of all these aspects and will give a basic idea about what goes behind a WWE tryout and how things can get interesting and weird in an instant.
10. Trick Williams Told To Tone Down For Cutting Attitude Era Style Promo
Before he got the fans chanting "Whoop That Trick," the two-time NXT Champion once tried opening a classic Attitude Era-style can of whoop-ass during his first WWE tryout - and was asked to tone it down. Williams recalled the incident during an interview with Denise Salcedo. He talked about how WWE officials wanted him to learn to entertain people while keeping it clean.
He revealed during the interview that he stopped watching wrestling after the Attitude Era to focus more on his football prospects, which means he missed the Ruthless Aggression and PG Eras and didn't know the company had gone soft over the years.
When he received a WWE Tryout, he tried to make a good first impression by cutting an Attitude Era-style promo. However, the officials reportedly told him to tone things down since that's not what the company does anymore. Williams then decided to reaquaint himself with modern WWE programming, and he revealed watching Kofi Kingston win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 was the moment that fully brought him back to wrestling.
With a rekindled passion for the sport, Trick Williams earned a developmental deal with WWE in 2021 and made his official in-ring debut on the 5 October 2021 episode of NXT.