Mojo Rawley Says He Painted His Face ‘Like An Idiot’ For Nothing’ In WWE

Mojo Rawley was released from WWE after a long stint of not being used at all. There was a time when WWE tried out a new character for Rawley, but it didn’t pan out. He stood in front of a mirror, with face paint on, and cut strange conflicted promos. It turns out that he wasn’t about that at all.

Mojo Rawley had a few weeks of that face paint gimmick before it was dropped. Then he disappeared from television once again. One of the reasons that gimmick didn’t work might have been his own resentment toward the angle.

While speaking to Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Mojo Rawley admitted that he was “so against” the face paint gimmick. In the end, it didn’t amount to anything and he admitted to painting his face “like an idiot” for no reason at all.

“[laughs] I was so against that. I really didn’t want to do that. But truthfully the sketches didn’t look half bad. I remember thinking I hope when I wear this it looks this cool, it couldn’t be furthest from. I pitched this idea of everyone looks at themselves in the mirror and everyone hypes themselves up. Everyone has that degree of vanity, let me run with it. Let me cut promos where I am berating them for their shortcoming, and you don’t know who I am talking to. You find out later it’s me, and we can take this whole new attitude and run with it.”

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“Somehow that lead to me losing my mind and drawing on my face, I don’t know what it became. We literally did one match with that character. Me and Apollo [Crews] were paired together on a Europe tour. I remember I was like 2 and half weeks of every day working together, we put on some great matches. There was so much that we pitched together. We put on matches that nobody was really expecting out of us and the fans gravitated towards. It’s hard though. You got 2 guys with no TV time going after these guys with established rivalries. But it was in the reports every night. These 2 are onto something, lets give them a run.”

“So, they booked Apollo for my debut match in this new run. We were stoked, we were like let’s go out and kill it, show them what we got. Then we found out it was a 60-second match that was written out entirely for us. Two and a half weeks, then it’s that, then it’s over. I just painted my face like an idiot for nothing.”

We’ll have to see what happens with Mojo Rawley next. His time in WWE is over, but fans can now see him in the new Snake Eyes GI Joe movie where he has a role. That might be the first of many roles to come as he now has time to focus on other opportunities. Rawley is also wrapping up his 90-day non-compete clause, so he might get a call from another pro wrestling company as well.

No matter where Mojo Rawley goes next, odds are he won’t be painting his face.

What’s your take on WWE’s booking of Mojo Rawley? How could they have done it better? Sound off in the comments!

Thanks to Chris Van Vliet for the quotes