Ethan Page says there was a point in his career where he did not believe WWE was going to happen.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on INSIGHT, Page recalled receiving an email from WWE while he was leaving TNA that told him the company was not going to hire him.
Oh yeah, dude.
I have this clip and I’ve texted to a couple people.
Page said he has footage of the moment because he filmed much of his career for YouTube.
I’ve filmed everything in my life pretty much.
Especially when I started when I was with EVOLVE.
My wife convinced me to get a GoPro and start vlogging, but I had no clue what I was doing.
Page said that footage continued through multiple stops in his wrestling career.
I just have random footage from back in EVOLVE, then all through TNA, all through Japan, England, all through AEW.
I pretty much filmed as much of it as I could for YouTube.
Page said the WWE email came during a major career crossroads.
There was the time I was leaving TNA and I decided not to stay.
In that window, I had gotten an email while in Nashville recording the show for Impact.
Page said the email was from WWE.
The email was from WWE telling me that they’re never going to hire me.
Page said the timing made it even tougher because he had already decided he was not staying with Impact Wrestling.
I read the email and I’m like, “Oh man, what am I going to do?”
I just told Impact that I’m not staying.
Page said AEW was possible at the time, but not guaranteed.
AEW was like a possible option, but nothing was concrete.
And then I get this email being like, “Yeah, yeah, we’re not hiring you. Just stop.”
Page said the message felt like WWE telling him the door was closed.
Pretty much like, this is the end of the road.
It’s not going to happen.
Just kind of let it go.
Page said he filmed himself after reading the email and documented what he was feeling.
I filmed myself right after reading the email and then had a conversation with myself documenting it.
Page said the moment forced him to decide how he was going to respond.
Pretty much being like, “Are you going to be okay with this or are you going to shove it up their ass?”
Van Vliet asked Page if the moment was heartbreaking.
It was awful.
To watch it back is pretty rough, but I got it.
Page joked that the footage may eventually have value for WWE.
I can’t wait to sell it to WWE for whatever documentary they make.
Page also said one of the biggest obstacles was trying to break into WWE while not living in the United States.
It’s impossible.
It was the biggest one.
Page said the visa process was a major part of that challenge.
Getting papers and finally getting a visa and then a good enough visa that you can upgrade the visa and then finally get the green card.
Page said he is now grateful for the route he took after signing with WWE, including starting in NXT before moving to Raw.
I’m very happy that I got to do NXT.
I’m very grateful because I got to actually educate a completely different audience on who I am, my skill set.
Page said the Raw and SmackDown audience is different from the NXT audience.
NXT has its audience and Raw and SmackDown have their completely different audience.
It’s much bigger.
Page said he now understands that building equity with WWE fans takes time.
I’ve realized, okay, it’s going to take time now.
Maybe a couple years of repetition, going doing all the live events, wrestling in front of all of these crowds and all these countries to build that equity.
Page said he is glad he did not rush straight to Raw or SmackDown.
The impact that you have on the fans, it takes a while.
It’s a much larger scope.
I’m very happy that I didn’t just rush to Raw or rush to SmackDown.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.
