AEW star Daniel Garcia has recalled Triple H welcoming him to the team following his WWE tryout, while he wasn’t signed to the company.
Speaking on Talk is Jericho, Garcia reflected on his experiences working with WWE in 2020 ahead of his January 2021 tryout.
The Jericho Appreciation Society member noted that he received a positive reaction for a squash match he had on NXT around this time.
Explaining why he ultimately didn’t join WWE, Garcia said:
I did actually work for WWE. I wrestled Drew Gulak on 205 Live in like a 15 second match. He beat me up pretty bad. It was pretty nasty, pretty ruthless. Then I had a WWE tryout in January of last year, so 2021, and I had a match on NXT right after the tryout. I did one loop of Dark in September of 2020, and then I had my tryout in January of 2021.
“I thought I did really well. They asked me to stay another extra day to have a squash match on NXT against Tyler Rust. The match went really well. I remember I went through the back and Shawn Michaels loved it, Road Dog loved it, and A-Train loved it. Triple H shook my hand and said ‘Welcome to the team.’ I think he thought I was signed, but I wasn’t at the time. In my mind, I’m like, ‘I guess I’m going to NXT.’
“I talked to Canyon Ceman right before I left. He said, ‘Hey, let me know if any other place has interest because we’ll sign you sooner.’ In my mind I’m like, ‘that’s disrespectful to me. If you want to sign me, just sign me’.
“I was like, Okay, if he wants to play that, I’ll play it back to him. At the time, I had an interest from Ring of Honor and I knew AEW wanted to bring me back in for extra work. But I was like, I’m gonna make this seem bigger than it actually is. So I said to him, ‘With that being said, I’ll talk to you very soon.’
“I think he got kind of hot at me for that. I think it shook him up a little bit. They emailed me a couple weeks later, kind of saying like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna stay in contact, blah, blah, blah’, and then that kind of made me mad. Then I went on a crazy Indie run and then I signed with AEW.”
Garcia officially signed with AEW in October 2021. He’s still active on the independent scene, winning the PWG World Championship last month.
Garcia last wrestled for AEW during Saturday’s (June 11) dark tapings, playing a prominent role on the shows. You can read spoilers for the tapings right here.
Stay up to date with AEW win/loss records for 2022 using our tracker at this link.
Transcription via WrestlingNews.co.
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