
Erick Rowan (real name: Joseph Rudd), who was one of the recently released WWE Superstars, and who is now known as Erick RedBeard, was a guest on the âThe Lewis Nicholls Showâ not too long ago to talk about his start in pro wrestling and how he got into WWE. Rowan also talked about his last run in WWE ending in SmackDown and whether more could have been done with it.
This is what Erick Rowan said:
âThey can always do more with it.â âLike you said, yes, it was too short, and I think a lot of that was a victim of having the draft coming up [and] switching networks to FOX. They didnât have a plan for me going out because they didnât think I was going to succeed.â
âI know they didnât think I was going to succeed because I wouldnât have had people going up to me backstage going, âoh my gosh. I canât believe youâre doing this,â and then week after week after week, all of sudden theyâre letting me talk. Theyâre letting me do more and more, so they were trusting me more and more, and then it just stopped when I got put onto RAW.â
Prior to being released by the WWE, Erick Rowanâs final storyline in the company had him carrying around a mysterious cage and the reveal showed that an animatronic spider was the object inside the cage. Rowan talked about putting different things on different days just in case somebody peeked.
This is what Erick Rowan said:
âI put something just in case somebody peeked through.â âYou never know if something is gonna fall out. Nobody told me to do it, but I put stuff in there just in case. One week, I didnât have anything, so I took a t-shirt and some duct tape and made like a stuffed animal. I just did stupid things, so that if somebody looks through. They can see some sort of shape. I didnât know what was going to be in there.â
Nicholls then asked Erick Rowan, âWhen they told you, were you a little bit underwhelmed?â
Rowan answered with, âPlead the fifth.â
Rowan then talked about being released by the WWE and still being young to be able to show people more of what he can do as a wrestler.
This is what Erick Rowan said:
âThe thing about all this is we did get a message, like we have an app that we had, and it had a message from Vince.â âIt kind of explained that thereâs gonna be some lay-offs. Thereâs gonna be some furloughs. How the whole economy is churning, they basically have to let people go, and when I heard that, I was like, âwell, Iâm under contract, so I canât be furloughed. So if theyâre gonna let me go, theyâre gonna let me go.â To me, even the last time I was on television was when they killed the spider like the day after because of Backlash because I donât know why else they would kill it.â
âThereâs no plans for it, so I was just sitting at home. Like, a lot of guys were just sitting at home. You get that initial shock, and then itâs like, well, OK, whatâs next because you got to keep going. My family, they know I got goals and things I want to do outside of wrestling as well as still in wrestling. Iâm not event 40 yet. I havenât even hit the peak of my career. These interviews that I do are so beneficial to show people that hey, I have a voice. Iâm more than just some brute in the background of some weekly show or some guy that just terrorizes people with the cage that are smaller than them.â
Rowan then talked about possibly working for AEW in the future because the company has got great exposure but staying away from Brodie Lee as they just keep finding each other.
This is what Erick Rowan said:
âI havenât had any conversations. Iâm still under a 90-day no-compete clause.â âBut as far as something like that, yes, that would be awesome to be able to show your talents on a national level because they do have a contract through TNT, and they get great exposure. They have a lot of really good guys that work there that know theyâre doing, and theyâre giving kids chances.â
âSo yes, I do watch. I do find it entertaining at points and not entertaining at other points, which every showâs like that. Thereâs other guys on the independents that Iâd love to work with. They got some big boys over at Impact. They got some big boys over at ROH. Thatâs not even getting into overseas stuff, but as far as AEW would go, for me, and I think Brodie would say this as well, we need to stay the hell away from each other. We just keep finding each other somehow.â
You can check out Erick Rowanâs full comments in the video below:
