Both Shawn Daivari and Ken Anderson say their relationship with WWE is fine.
Ken Anderson and Shawn Daivari have each wrestled for over seventeen years. Both have worked for WWE, TNA, Ring of Honor, and toured independent promotions all over the world. In December of 2016, Anderson and Daivari opened a professional wrestling school together in Minnesota called The Academy. In an interview with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp on The List and Ya Boy, Anderson and Daivari were asked about their current relationship with WWE.
Anderson has not been in WWE since 2009. During his time there, he held championship gold and won a Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania 23. He was released by WWE after an injury in 2009. In the interview, Anderson said he recently went to an NXT event and he has a decent relationship with WWE.
"I just went to the NXT show, talked to Matt Bloom and, talked to Shawn Michaels for a couple hours. It's not a business relationship at this point, it's a friendly relationship. There's no heat or anything like that," said Anderson.
Daivari has been off of WWE television even longer than his business partner Anderson. He said he has spoken with WWE officials in past years. His brother Ariya has been working in WWE as part of 205 Live and the Cruiserweight Classic. Daivari said he has had some sit-downs with his brother and Vince McMahon.
"For myself, I had conversations with Triple H when I was done with Ring of Honor in 2011. I haven't had any conversations since my brother started working there. Last two times he was in town, I went down, and had a pow-wow with Vince. Me, my brother, Vince, and the head writer of Smackdown, nothing came of it," said Daivari. "They always have their ideas of who out there is available, if they want to," he added.
Daivari compared his and Anderson's relationships with WWE to Shelton Benjamin, who recently returned to WWE. Benjamin was brought back to tag-team with Chad Gable. Daivari said WWE knows who's on the free agent market and knows when to call wrestlers like he and Anderson.
"For the longest time, they knew Shelton was available. It's one of those things where if you're going to hang out in the balance, I don't think they mind grabbing you and saying 'let's see if this guy will pan out.' But if you're someone like Shelton, Ken, or myself for example. I think they will be like 'we have something specifically for Ken and we know we can call Ken,'" said Davari. "They could have signed Shelton and benched him. But, they said 'Why? Let's let him earn a living where he wants and when we have something specific for him, we'll give him a call," he continued.
Also during the podcast, Daivari spoke about being granted his release from Lucha Underground and his experience working for that promotion.
The List and Ya Boy is Fightful Wrestling's podcast and features interviews each week from wrestlers and wrestling personalities.
The List and Ya Boy airs on Wednesdays at 3pm eastern on FightfulPods.com.
