Hanson has something in common with Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Keith Lee, and Matt Cross.
Aside from all being professional wrestlers, they all attended the same WWE tryout at the Performance Center in Orlando, FL in 2014 -- and none of them were signed.
During his exclusive interview with Fightful.com, Hanson recalled it being "the first tryout at the Performance Center.
"That was kind of weird to see all the names that were there," Hanson said. "The American Wolves, Keith Lee, Matt Cross. A lot of guys. None of us, none of us got signed that day. It was crazy. But we were all on the radar."
Hanson has moved on to championship success in both Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling, teaming with Raymond Rowe -- who we also interviewed recently -- as War Machine. Originally trained by Killer Kowalski, Hanson noted that as he came up in the business and worked independent shows in New England, that he had different objectives at the time.
"My goal was never Ring of Honor. Where I trained, it was WWE or nothing and you trained for WWE," he said. "I did years and years and years and years of extra work for WWE, just trying to get my foot in the door. And the whole time it was always, 'get in better shape' … I'm straight edge, I don't take steroids, and they were big on 6-2, 220 [guys] with abs. At one point I got down to 6-2, 235 … but I didn't have abs, I didn't have that body they were looking for. It was just really, it was disheartening. That time period, seeing guys get signed that weren't even coordinated. They could hardly walk or chew gum at the sawe time but they had that million dollar body so they got signed."
Click here to check out Hanson's entire interview with Fightful.
