"Come back when you have a personality," AEW Star revisits rejection by WWE
An AEW star recently spoke about his rejection by WWE during his performance center tryouts due to a lack of personality. The star in question is Anthony Bowens.
In his letter to AEW in The Players' Tribune, Anthony Bowens revisited his rejection at the WWE Performance Center. In 2014, the 32-year-old received an invitation for a World Wrestling Entertainment tryout and, based on his showing, was invited to the Performance Center by the Stamford-based company.
The AEW Trios Champion said he performed well in the in-ring department during his Performance Center tryout, but when asked to cut a promo, he was uncomfortable on the mic.
"At the Performance Center, I killed it again. I’m not even bragging — I’ve just always been a good athlete, and the in-ring stuff always felt natural to me. But then I had to cut a promo. And as comfortable as I was when it came to wrestling, I was the exact opposite when it came to talking. They put a mic in my hand … and it’s hard to explain." Anthony Bowens said.
Bowens continued he botched the promo and was told by William Regal that he had most of the traits the company was looking for but fell short on personality.
"So I botched my tryout promos pretty badly. I remember William Regal telling me I had “four out of five” traits they’re looking for in a prospect. The only trait where I was falling short was “personality.” Which is funny to think about on some level — like, only in wrestling could a potential employer turn you down by saying, Come back when you have a personality!" Anthony Bowens said.
Anthony Bowens called out WWE for unfair treatment of Darren Young
Speaking in an interview with Out, Anthony Bowens praised Darren Young for publically coming out during his time in World Wrestling Entertainment, becoming the first wrestler to do so while still being signed with the Stamford-based company. While WWE supported Young for being open about his sexuality by releasing a statement soon after, Bowens noted that the company didn't do much with the wrestler afterward.
"I wasn’t sure how it would affect my career because unfortunately, they didn’t do much with Darren afterwards. From a company perspective, I think Darren did a great job, but from a company’s perspective with WWE, it wasn’t the most motivating for me to see how they treated him." (H/T: Out).
During his WWE run, Darren Young was a part of the heel faction Nexus and held the Tag Team titles once alongside Titus O'Neil.
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