WWE Passed On Signing Indie Wrestler After Reports Of Stripper Past

WWE has their eye out for any number of people, and Vince McMahon has a specific type of wrestler he wants to sign. Gone are the days where WWE is in search of smaller wrestlers, because McMahon wants to sign muscular people who can someday main event a WrestleMania event.

While speaking to Bodyslam.net’s Tea and Tights Podcast, Adam “Flex” Maxted spoke about his 2017 WWE tryout in London and how well it went. He decided to stick with NGW for a while, but then the pandemic changed those plans. He then called up William Regal to let him know that he would like to give the NXT UK brand a try.

“So time went on, Covid happened. Unfortunately NGW weren’t able to pay our contracts so I was obviously technically a free agent, so I messaged Mr Regal and said look this is the situation, I’m not tied down to anything any more. Then I had a call from Ken Ceman he said Mr Regal and a few others speak highly of you so we want to bring you in to our NXT UK Brand so they offered me a contract there and then, they said as soon as I finish the phone call the contract will be sent through, well the contract offer, and you know I am obviously excited I’m like here comes the next chapter I’ve worked hard for this time to step up here we go I’m not sure if you know you probably do, you’ve got to go through background checks in WWE to then get singed so that they can cover themselves.”

Maxted then brought up the research that WWE did on him. They could articles that mistook his gig as a “Buff Butler” for a being stripper. That was not the case, but it still made headlines, and that cost him his opportunity with WWE.

“So, heres where the story takes its turn. So basically, and this is the truth, when I was younger I, when I worked in Belfast, I used to do do some work as a Buff Butler. Which involved wearing a bowtie and an apron and I’m mainly working at hen parties or you know women’s events I’m walking round with Champagne, passing their drinks, nothing crazy, and I did that because it was easy money, I was in good shape at the time, I was like 17, 18, 19, you know just trying to earn some money. So I did that, but funnily at the time I did my try out in 2017 a couple of news article came out “Belfast stripper gets WWE try out” or “Belfast stripper is close to signing with WWE” so, I didn’t think anything of those articles because I was like well no one is gonna even see those so doesn’t even matter, I knew it wasn’t true any way, I never got fully naked, you can google my name there’s nothing like that out there, you know what I mean because I checked all this and didn’t do it any way there might be the odd picture of me in an apron?”

Maxted then received a call from WWE’s background checking department while vacationing in Greece. They wanted an explanation for those article about his stripper past.

“So basically background check gets done I was in Greece at the time I get the phone call from a lady that works for the WWE, she says look Adam whats this stripper thing about we need to talk about this”

Maxted tried to plead his case to WWE, but it was to no avail. They explained that they can’t have photos or videos of himself in provocative positions. Even though he tried to explain his situation, the opportunity was rescinded.

“I pleaded my case for about 30 minutes on the phone, I didn’t do it, WWE was always the goal for me why would I want to jeopardise myself and my career by doing something silly like that when I know you can’t be naked there can’t be footage of you out there do you know what I mean I am not silly. Even when I went on love island, I portrayed myself in a certain way as I was always worried about the cameras, how I was coming across, because WWE was always the goal. The producers took me outside one day, and told me like, you’ve never sworn once on your season of love island, you’ve never said a bad word. Because I was always thinking don’t say anything silly because you know with WWE it can always come back to haunt you.”

Maxted still hopes to find his way to WWE. He is taking any indie bookings he can, but there aren’t a ton of options right now. That won’t stop him from pursuing his dream of one day working for Vince McMahon’s company.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!

Thanks to Bodyslam.net for the quote