Erick Redbeard, formerly known as Erick Rowan, discusses potentially returning to WWE and says he'd like to tell his story.
Redbeard previously worked for WWE for several years; he signed a developmental deal with the company in 2011 and moved up to the main roster in 2013. He was featured as a member of the Wyatt Family alongside Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. He later broke off into a tag team with Harper, and he also had a run as Daniel Bryan's tag team partner.
After a brief singles run, the company released Redbeard in a wave of cuts in April 2020. Since then, Redbeard has remained somewhat active on the independent scene, and he has made multiple appearances for AEW.
Speaking with Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston, Redbeard was asked about potentially returning to WWE and whether the opportunity to do so is still there. He responded by saying that he'd like to tell his story about the journey he went on after his release. He joked that he'd like to show the world how he found purpose after Drew McIntyre destroyed his spider on WWE TV.
"There’s always opportunity, and my story within wrestling and that character of Erick Rowan or Erick Redbeard, it has so much left to tell. I think when I stepped aside when COVID happened and people were let go, I wasn’t ready for my story to stop on that [note]. But it’s been a couple of years. I’ve stepped my toes into over avenues of entertainment, which I’ve fell in love with. But wrestling has always given me, I don’t know, I’ve been lucky enough where I’ve been able to do some bigger arena shows with AEW and get that taste of the crowd. But I haven’t had a story. I haven’t told a story of what’s happened to me since I’ve stepped away from wrestling. To me, I’d love to tell that story on some sort of stage because I think it could be very interesting to see what’s happened to me. I love the continuality [sic] within wrestling. The last time anybody saw me, I had a pet spider that died, so I’d like to talk about my years of recluse, wandering the earth, finding reason and purpose for life without my precious spider [laughs]," Redbeard said.
In the same interview, Redbeard described how signing with AEW was never a discussion for various reasons. You can check out his comments here.
Since Triple H took over as the head of creative, WWE has brought several stars who were previously released, including Karrion Kross, Dexter Lumis, and most recently, Bray Wyatt. Matt Cardona recently described how he's not actively trying to get back to WWE, but he thinks about the WWE Championship every day. Click here to see what he had to say.
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