5 Wrestlers and their WWE audition tapes
When a popular movie or TV series is released, fans can sometimes find online videos of the actors’ audition tapes.
In WWE, however, it is less common for the company’s Superstars to audition for a job via tape, as the majority of future talents are asked to attend a tryout instead of sending in video footage of their charisma and in-ring skills.
There are exceptions to this, of course, most notably in 2015 when WWE encouraged budding Superstars to send in short promo videos to be in with a chance of participating on the sixth season of the Tough Enough competition.
Four years later, it turns out that a few of those audition tapes led to some of those young prospects becoming WWE Superstars, while others are now making a name for themselves elsewhere in the wrestling business.
In this article, let’s count down five wrestlers who auditioned for WWE and take a look at what they had to say in their audition tapes.
#5 Lio Rush
Lio Rush made his wrestling debut in November 2014 and quickly established himself as one of the top up-and-coming talents in the entire industry.
In the summer of 2015, he had started to build his name through CZW and various independent promotions when he decided to audition for Tough Enough.
Going by his real name, Lionel Green, Rush mentioned during his video that he has been a WWE fan since he was five years old and he explained how he trained every day to help improve his chances of one day making it to WWE.
“I’ll eat, sleep and breathe wrestling and wake up to do it all the next day. Tough comes in small packages, and I’m ready to be in the WWE.”
Although Rush did not participate on the Tough Enough reality show, he went on to sign with WWE in July 2017 before joining the main roster in September 2018 to align with Bobby Lashley.
Nowadays, Rush is the Cruiserweight Champion and he appears on both NXT and 205 Live.