James Ellsworth recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet and reflected on his WWE career. In one highlight, he revealed that he got his opportunity with WWE because Arn Anderson liked the punch he threw:
Ellsworth: “I’m like, ‘Man, I hope I get the spot, this might be my only shot. So Arn Anderson comes up to us all. He’s like, ‘Hey, whoever throws the best punch gets the spot.’ He’s like, ‘I want to see you guys throw a punch.’ And he pointed to me first, he said, ‘Let me see you throw a punch.’ And I threw one on one of the other extras, and Arn Anderson just looked at me, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t need to see anyone else of you guys.’ He’s like, ‘You got the spot.'”
“So we get in the ring, and he goes, ‘Alright, let me see you throw it on Braun [Strowman] here. I’d never met Braun, I’m looking at him like, ‘Hi.’ I throw a punch, boom. And Arn goes, ‘Good, you still threw the same punch.’ He’s like, ‘So that wasn’t a fluke back there.'”
Ellsworth also discussed the ideas for bringing him to the main roster that never came to fruition:
Ellsworth: “They would email me every week, like ideas. That particular [WWE] RAW the week after, they were gonna have Chris Jericho bring me out dressed as Enzo (Amore) because I think him and Kevin Owens were feuding with Enzo and Cass at the time. And they were gonna beat me up dressed as Enzo. So that didn’t happen….they were doing this thing where Heath Slater didn’t get drafted by RAW or SmackDown. So then the major idea that never happened was originally, I was going to wrestle Heath Slater at SummerSlam, and the winner gets a SmackDown contract. And I was gonna win. That was the original idea to bring me in.”
The full episode is available here:
If you use any portion of this transcription, please credit Colin Tessier for WrestleZone.com
