10 Wrestlers Who Were REJECTED For Famous Wrestling Gimmicks
1. MJF
...kind of.
MJF's mid-2010s dalliances with WWE have floated around the wrestling sphere for a while now, but his recent explanation of the day he played Finn Bálor's "paint dummy" has ingeniously added fuel to the fire brewing between the 'Salt Of The Earth' and Blackpool Combat Club cornerstone William Regal.
A 2015 Tough Enough audition video that surfaced within WWE's YouTube archives revealed just how close Maxwell Jacob Friedman was to having the complete package several years before his All Elite Wrestling role brought him national prominence, but - as mentioned in an instantly iconic showdown between MJF and Regal - his age rendered him surplus to their requirements.
Back to when "The Devil" was "The Demon" though - ahead of being a security guard shoved hard in the chest by Samoa Joe at TakeOver: Brooklyn 2, the future AEW megastar was deemed perfect to get the Bálor paintjob just for the NXT Champion to see how it looked. Finn gave it the nod, but the "dummy" was left to simply wash it off and loiter until WWE yet again passed up the opportunity to lock down the 'Generational Talent'.
Three years into a wrestling war, there may be no greater raison d'etre for AEW than the market leader dropping this specific ball.