Current AEW Star Reveals Being Offered Major Championship Weeks Prior To Debut

AEW

A current AEW star has revealed that two weeks prior to his debut with the company he was offered a major championship in another promotion.

Speaking on Josh Nason’s Punch-Out podcast, Andy Williams AKA The Butcher, revealed that prior to their AEW debut in November 2019, himself and The Blade were offered the chance to win the ROH Six-Man Tag Championships alongside Tyler Bateman.

However, despite even being sent contracts for the dates that would see them win the titles, the shows were eventually cancelled and the plans never took shape.

Reflecting on the close-call The Butcher said:

“So we had gotten offered from ROH to come in and win the Trios belt (with) Tyler Bateman and that was like two weeks before we got the AEW offer and it was supposed to be us three versus Brody King, Marty Scurll and… the dude, the Frankenstein guy?… Yeah, PCO, and we were supposed to come in, beat those guys, win the Six-Man Title.

“ROH had sent us contract offers but then the shows that they offered us had gotten canceled and I was like, ‘This is bad’ and I remember telling Jess (The Blade), ‘This is an omen.

“We gotta run from this. This is a bad sign’ and we did, we stuck to our guns, didn’t sign anything and I remember being at the gym, I remember Hana (his wife) being on a Stairmaster and getting a call from Cody (Rhodes), asking if we wanted to come in and do AEW and it blew my mind.”

On his AEW debut itself Butcher said:

“So I remember getting there, I remember Billy Gunn being the producer. He was like our agent for that match and I was terrified dude. Like terrified and then they take us in the dark, put us under the ring and stuff like that, so casual.

“I was in my sh*t, I was in my gear, ran down, get under the ring. Luckily, Cody had that big, extravagant entrance where the lights had to go out and there’s fireworks and everything like that.

“Matt Knicks, Freelance Wrestling promoter, was in the ring. He’s got a singles match with Cody, like a squash. I’m under the ring and terrified. Like what if this thing doesn’t open, and you’re going through all of this stuff and then it’s like, once I’m out there, what do I do?

“And we went over it. It’s so crazy dude. It was such a wild ride and it was over and I remember Billy, walking up to Billy and now I know Billy’s mannerisms. At the time, I had no idea. It’s f*cking Billy Gunn and he looks angry and he walks up to me and he was like, ‘Great job man. Great job, great job’ and he’s talking to me super calm and I’m like, oh my God and I’m waiting.

“I’m like, he’s gonna yell at me and I did something wrong. I had to have done something wrong and he was like — at the time, we were doing a suplex into a backbreaker from Jesse called ‘Full Death’.

“That was our finish and he was like, ‘When you get the snap, you snap it. You gotta put a little more snap into it’ and I was like, ‘Okay’ and then work week is over. Our work week is over.

“I talked to Billy Gunn, blah, blah, blah. People are saying, ‘Oh, great job,’ blah, blah, blah. Then things are happening online, ‘Who the hell are these guys?’ Blah, blah, blah and then Cody literally put us in a position where we were in a main angle for like a month, month-and-a-half and I had to learn how to wrestle on TV that week. It was crazy.”

While not in as high-profile a spot as when they debuted for the company, The Butcher and The Blade remain a fixture of AEW TV nearly four years on from their debut, most recently taking part in the Blackjack Battle Royal at May 28’s Double or Nothing PPV.

Transcript courtesy of POST Wrestling

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• The Butcher
• The Butcher and The Blade
• ROH
• AEW

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