Bodybuilding legend Mike O’Hearn recently revealed that he came very close to becoming a WWE superstar during the early 1990s. According to O’Hearn, WWE wanted to sign him while he was becoming one of the biggest stars on American Gladiators.
O’Hearn explained that former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon personally showed strong interest in bringing him into professional wrestling. However, the deal eventually fell apart because of scheduling conflicts with his television commitments.
Mike O’Hearn says WWE nearly signed him in the early ‘90s
During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Mike O’Hearn opened up about his near move to WWE and explained how the opportunity first happened.
“I did meet and sit down with Vince [in the] early ’90s.” He revealed that Shane McMahon personally flew him to WWE headquarters in Connecticut to discuss joining the company.
“Shane McMahon flew me out and goes, ‘We want you for wrestling. We want you [in] WWE.'”
At the time, O’Hearn was already becoming a major television personality through American Gladiators and was also gaining attention because of his bodybuilding, martial arts, and judo background.
“I was killing Gladiators. I was all over the covers.” He added, “Vince came in. We talked about character and development and everything. Then he says, ‘This is it. We’re doing this.’ Sent me down to wardrobe. We started, I mean, we moved. We moved.”
“And then the problem was WWE. I already got Gladiators.’ ‘And so then they were trying to negotiate how to work this out, and it fell apart.’ So, I stayed with Gladiators.” Despite missing out on WWE, O’Hearn admitted he was disappointed because he genuinely loved wrestling.
“Oh, yeah. Because it’s fun. Wrestling is absolutely fun. And again, you got to be an athlete to do it. So, it was crazy fun, but it just didn’t work out at the time. And again, back then, you’re traveling so much. Everything wouldn’t have worked out, where if I can do Gladiators, I got my season. I can still bodybuild. I can still powerlift. I can still do whatever else. So, I can still go to castings and do movies and TV shows. So, it worked out best for me.”
O’Hearn also revealed that WWE tried to sign him again years later.
“It worked out so well that seven years later, they came back again.’ But then I had Battle Dome. Shut it down again. So, things work out the way they do. It’s not bad. I got a TV show still, you know, so it’s a give and take.”
“And then I got to do some fun stuff because Battle Dome teamed up with WCW. In the 2000s. So, we went over there and bashed against those guys, Goldberg and Ric Flair, Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan. So, it was great to get in the ring with those guys and play around.”
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