Kemo
06-15-2022, 10:06 PM
Chris Brookes, who performs under the DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion in Japan, recently revealed that he was ready to turn down a WWE tryout a few years back before a current SmackDown superstar convinced him otherwise.
Brookes went through with the tryout and was then offered a WWE contract. He explained to Andrew Thompson why he turned it down.
“I got offered the tryout I think in 2017… so I got offered the tryout thing first and I remember when they called me, I was like — I think I spoke to maybe Pete Dunne [Butch] about it at the time and I was like, ‘They’ve offered me a tryout thing but I don’t think I’m gonna go.’
“He was like, ‘What do you mean you’re not gonna go?’ I was like, ‘…There’s nothing that I wanna get out of it. It doesn’t feel worthwhile going,’ and I think he convinced me. He was like, ‘Even if you don’t wanna get anything from it, you should still go just to get the experience,’ which he’s right. I’m glad I got to do it and have that tryout [at] The O2 [Arena] and stuff.
“It was a cool two days and whatever and then when they decided they wanted to start the U.K. brand, I guess maybe a year or so after, they offered me a position in it, but they offered so many people contracts and whatever but like, they really cast a wide net at the time and they offered me one of the deals, same as the other guys and I thought about it.
“I think the initial one was like a year or two years thing and I guess if that’s 2018, I was 27-ish around that time. And my mentality towards it was like, of course it’s only two years or whatever but no one knew how it was gonna pan out.
“No one knew what the exclusivity to it would be and I didn’t feel done by any means with doing indie wrestling and stuff that I wanted to do and my goal was always Japan and I was like, if it’s two years, I’m 27, 28 now.”
Chris Brookes also said that WWE was never his goal in wrestling. He said that he fell out of watching wrestling when he was a kid but got back into it years later after watching Pro Wrestling NOAH, Big Japan, DDT, ROH, and CZW.
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Brookes went through with the tryout and was then offered a WWE contract. He explained to Andrew Thompson why he turned it down.
“I got offered the tryout I think in 2017… so I got offered the tryout thing first and I remember when they called me, I was like — I think I spoke to maybe Pete Dunne [Butch] about it at the time and I was like, ‘They’ve offered me a tryout thing but I don’t think I’m gonna go.’
“He was like, ‘What do you mean you’re not gonna go?’ I was like, ‘…There’s nothing that I wanna get out of it. It doesn’t feel worthwhile going,’ and I think he convinced me. He was like, ‘Even if you don’t wanna get anything from it, you should still go just to get the experience,’ which he’s right. I’m glad I got to do it and have that tryout [at] The O2 [Arena] and stuff.
“It was a cool two days and whatever and then when they decided they wanted to start the U.K. brand, I guess maybe a year or so after, they offered me a position in it, but they offered so many people contracts and whatever but like, they really cast a wide net at the time and they offered me one of the deals, same as the other guys and I thought about it.
“I think the initial one was like a year or two years thing and I guess if that’s 2018, I was 27-ish around that time. And my mentality towards it was like, of course it’s only two years or whatever but no one knew how it was gonna pan out.
“No one knew what the exclusivity to it would be and I didn’t feel done by any means with doing indie wrestling and stuff that I wanted to do and my goal was always Japan and I was like, if it’s two years, I’m 27, 28 now.”
Chris Brookes also said that WWE was never his goal in wrestling. He said that he fell out of watching wrestling when he was a kid but got back into it years later after watching Pro Wrestling NOAH, Big Japan, DDT, ROH, and CZW.
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