Aron Stevens looks back on his time in WWE.
The former Damien Sandow, who was a fan-favorite during his run and was a Money In The Bank ladder match winner, spoke on this topic during a recent interview on the Wrestling Perspective podcast. Stevens details his exit from WWE in 2016 and how he didn’t really like wrestling at that time, but decided to take a job with IMPACT after they reached out.
It’s funny, that was an interesting time in my life. I really had no desire to [wrestle], but [IMPACT] reached out to me shortly after I had left WWE. I had gotten a fair amount of press, from leaving WWE, way more than I thought, which was very flattering. I was not necessarily in the best space, in terms of my relationship with the wrestling industry; not to sound like I’m bitter because I’m not, I’m truly not. But look creatively at what the WWE was doing with me and what I felt I should be getting as far as opportunities based solely on the response I was getting from fans.
Shifting subjects, Stevens recalls getting some of the loudest pops during his time in WWE, especially at House Show events. However, he reveals that there was someone trying to hold him down as his name was never mentioned in the reports of crowd reactions.
I did an autograph signing a couple of weeks ago, and one of the guys putting the signing on said, hey, I have to let you know something; my friend works for WWE and worked for them when you were there. I knew who he was talking about. They would get the house show reports back and it would list the biggest pops of the night; he said, “You were right there; it was [John] Cena and you.” Then it got to a point where they would bring that back to certain people in the office, who will remain nameless because I’m not that guy to name names and bury people. They said, don’t even mention him anymore. So that’s how far removed I was from any opportunity. They didn’t want to hear my name, yet they kept me on the road for whatever. It’s all good; that’s the entertainment industry, it isn’t ballet, it’s not all fair, and that’s life. But as a performer, I’m just thinking, what do I have to do? Because I was blowing the roof off the place. So I had a bitter taste in my mouth, and then I had the opportunity for IMPACT Wrestling, and many of my friends were there. So I got to go there and get creative and stuff. But then, ultimately, there was an administrative change, and I had to look in the mirror, and I left wrestling after that.
Aside from his MITB victory Stevens was a former tag team champion with the Miz and the winner of two Slammy awards. His full interview can be found below.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)