One of All Elite Wrestling’s strongest and most agile star in “Powerful” Will Hobbs recently appeared as a guest on Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. During the podcast, Will talked about trying out for the WWE and which current AEW Stars were present in the tryouts with him.
This is what Will Hobbs said:
“I got an email saying, ‘We would like to invite you out for a tryout.’ It was after I did a couple dark matches.” “They were in the area. Did the three-day tryout, cardio drills. I thought I was going to be in the best shape. I dropped down from 253 to 222 trying to get my cardio up. In my class, I had Eddie Kingston and I had Big Swole there. Ever since then, we’ve stayed in contact.”
Will Hobbs then talked about doing promos during the last day of the tryouts and William Regal liking his promos because he used his real-life situation. Will Hobbs also talked about Will Power not being a gimmick, but it being the real him and everything he has gone through.
This is what Will Hobbs said:
“The last day, we ended up doing promos. William Regal was leading the promo class, and he came up to me and said he liked my promo because I used my real- life situation.” “A lot of people cut wrestling promos, and I was told then that day, you want to get emotion out of people.”
“Nobody knew my story, and there was probably maybe about 60 of us at this tryout. And I cried during the whole minute that I had. The whole thing, Will Power is not a gimmick. That’s me. Everything that I’ve gone through, you got to have willpower. Most people I know couldn’t go through this s**t.”
Will Hobbs then talked about getting an email from WWE about two months later saying, that they don’t have anything for him right now, but when they come to town, they will bring him in for extra dates. Hobbs then talked about after his match with Darby Allin on Dynamite, he gets an email saying, WWE is interested in bringing him in and that just pissed him off.
This is what Will Hobbs said:
“I get an email about two months later saying, ‘We don’t have anything for you right now, but when we come to town, we’ll bring you in for extra dates.’ At the time, it was like damn because I put so much into training, doing this and that and then you just tell me we’re interested, but we don’t have anything for you right now.” “Okay, cool, but after that, I probably maybe did 5 – 6 extra stuff with them when they came to town and nothing of it.”
“I had good little tryout matches. Scott [Armstrong] was always cool with me, and I’m like, okay, well what’s going to happen? I’m getting all this like great feedback. What can we do. Nothing. I get out there every time. ‘You did good. We like this and that.’ I knew I was getting BS’d. Then when I did my match with Darby [Allin] on the Saturday night Dynamite, I get an email saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. We’ve been thinking about you,’ and it just pissed me off.”
“As a man, for someone to bulls**t you, for me personally, it pisses me off. Just tell me the truth… I’m pretty sure they saw the battle royal I was in, and I didn’t know I was getting signed. I took my chances and said no.”
