Michaels — WWE Tryout Update!
Superstar Style — JD Michaels
JD Michaels reports on his recent WWE tryout!
I had a meeting last November with WWE at head office in Stamford and received some interest. However in order to ‘tryout’ or work a dark match or to work at all for WWE, you need a Social Security Number, which I didn’t posess at that time, being so I am Canadian and was in the process of getting a green card, so I was told as soon as I had a Social, to let them know. I received my Social in May and let WWE know. They told me to come to Philly for Smackdown/ECW. So with the double shot on the 8/9th, then WWE on the 12th, it was a good stretch for wrestling and a good stretch financially.
I arrived just after noon, checked in and went to catering. After a short sit down and introducing/re-aquainting, I decided to go get changed into my workout gear. I saw fellow Edmontonian, Chris Benoit on my way out of catering and he passed along some valuable advice on how one could get noticed. On my way to change, I stopped by Tony Garea’s table to fill out a few pages of paperwork — where my trusty Social came in hand since there were a few tax forms. I decided to schwizz before going to the ring and as luck would have it I walked into the bathroom with a who’s who of the office all taking a leak: Dusty Rhodes, Michael Hayes, Ricky Steamboat and Jerry Brisco. Needless to say, there weren’t any handshakes with the “hello’s”. There were 6 indy guys in total there, but for some reason, 3 never bothered to come and workout…. why the hell would you even bother going?
We were joined in the ring by developmental talents Dan Rodman, Ryan Wilson, The Major Bros. and Armando Estrada. The workout consisted of 2 guys wrestling and tagging in or tagging out whenever they wanted to. Probably 75% of the roster was sitting ringside or close to it watching. Undertaker with his huge arm brace, was leaning on the apron for a birdseye view. When I first tagged in, Brett Major also tagged in. I went for a single leg takedown and for some reason he thought I was shooting on him so we ended up in a friendly shoot/grappling match for about 5 min. Armando joked that he thought wrestling was a work so we agreed to start working. I have to admit, I’ve always liked grappling and shooting — seems like less and less guys in wrestling either don’t know how or just don’t want to.
We worked out for probably a good hour. My main goal during this was to not only work different sized guys, but with everything I did, have mine look more real, crisp, intense etc. than everyone else. After an hour or so, the agents came out and started putting together the matches for the 2 shows. Matt Striker asked me to ‘help him’, which I wasn’t sure what he meant, but quickly found out he was working Boogeyman, with Ricky Steamboat as their agent. He wanted me to walk through their stuff with Boogey so he and Ricky could get an idea what it would look like, and also to help me catch Steamboat’s eye. I never met Striker before, but thought that was a cool gesture on his part. Steamboat then got in the ring and put on a clinic on how babyfaces should sell, feed and bump as well as aggressively work a bodypart. Before we knew it, another hour passed. For such a clean cut face in his day, Steamboat is damn entertaining when going over stuff. I took a peek at the lineup for the night and they had a women’s dark match prior to Smackdown and Chris Masters vs Funaki as the dark for ECW so with doors opening, we were all sent to the back.
\A good 45 min into Smackdown, I was finishing up in catering and go change back into my suit and watch the show with the crew when an agent found me and said “Go find Chris Masters, they want you to work him in the 2nd dark, they just changed it so go find him, you’re on in about an hour”. I found this odd as they usually have everything booked in the afternoon and I already saw the lineup. Apparently however, I caught someone’s eye during the workout and they wanted to see a bit more. I went and got changed and found Masters with Khali in catering. I didn’t think I would ever shake hands with someone bigger than The Big Show, but Khali was definitely taller and suprisingly had bigger hands than Show. I swear Khali’s thumb was like the size of my wrist.
Chris said he didn’t know who the agent was and tossed a few ideas my way. I told him I was sure we wouldn’t get more than 5 min so he should just cut me off since he is established and I am not. He asked how long I’ve been working and realized my almost 7 years is more than twice as long as him, so he said “feel free to put some stuff together or how you think something might work better. He coulda been a dick who had an attitude because he is there and I’m not (yet), but it was nice he gave me the respect of a guy who’s worked longer than him and paid lots of dues. We put together a few ideas and basically were set. Elijah Burke and Masters both told me that if I exceeded what was expected of me, I could very well get considered for a job. Masters who arguably has the best physique in wrestling put over my build/look (which I have been busting my ass more than ever the last 6 months) so that is a compliment I gladly accept.
Then we found out Mike Rotundo (IRS) was our agent. He had just been told he was the agent so he asked us if we even really needed him. Masters went to grab his robe from his truck so I laid out the match to IRS and he said “sounds good, try to use more forearms than punches ’cause the office hates when punches get abused during matches”.
After Smackdown was done, they change the ropes from blue to silver, the ring skirts and wheel out the ECW entrance way. Once in gorilla, I was given the green light to head to the ring. The first fan closest to the entrance way yells out “Hey, who are you?”
I asked him if he was literate and showed him my wristbands which say J D on them.
“What kind of name is JD?” He asks…
“Shut the hell up and sit your ass down”… I say forgetting that I’m a baby tonight.
Once I get to the ring I realize the bottom 2 ropes were silver but they still hadn’t changed the top one, so I headed to the floor. I took a look around and saw that there was probably 10,000 people in the Wachovia Center, which put a smile on my face. Some of the fans near the ring on the hard cam side were trying to get my attention, so I walked over and played up to them as I knew it would be seen in the back. Right as some chick who was yelling that I was hot took my picture, Master’s music hit, so I rolled into the ring and it was time to go to work.
We locked up, he spun me around and nailed me in the back with a forearm. I dropped to a knee, but got back up. He gave me another forearm and I stumbled to the corner. He shot me across to the buckle and I walked out into his clothesline. When he tried to grab me, I fired up on him with several forearms backing him up to a corner. My irish-whip was reversed, I jumped onto the middle rope and sprung out with a reverse crossbody. He caught me and gave me a snakeyes. Masters proceded to inform me of how “awesome” my selling was before following that up with 2 kneedrops and a leg drop. After choking me on the middle rope, Masters gave me the ass splash. When he tried it a 2nd time, I moved and rolled to the middle. From my knees I gave him a jaw breaker. As he came back, I blasted him with a forearm to the stomach and he took a step back while I got up to one knee. Another huge forearm sent him back again, I’m off the ground. One more huge forearm and I’m standing tall, batter up. I nailed him with a flurry of rights, threw in some lefts, some kicks and of course a nice, loud, stiff chop for good measure. My whip was once again reversed and I ran into a military press to which he dropped me on my stomach. As I got to my feet, the “Masterpeice” locked on the Masterlock and you can add JD to the long list of guys that couldn’t get out of it.
BTW if anyone happened to take any pics of the match, I’d be happy to see them (jd_michaels@msn.com). Once in the back, Chris was all smiles. He put me over for being easy to work with, having good timing and of course selling his offense like a champ. I sought out a few agents to get some feedback, and it was all positive. I got changed and and joined the crew to watch ECW. The final match ended around 11pm ish so it was time to grab my bags and say goodbye to everyone. One of the agents told me to wait a few days then call head office to find out what’s next for me.
The next day, WWE Creative called me….
Controversy never looked this good!
www.jdmichaels.net www.myspace.com/jd_michaels
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2007 SCHEDULE:
Jun 8 - UWF; Philadelphia, PA JD/April vs Damien Wayne/Daffney
Jun 9 - WPW; Shillington, PA vs WWE Hall Of Famer, Nikolai Volkoff
Jun 12 - WWE; ECW/Smackdown Tapings, Philly PA vs Chris Masters
Aug 4 - WPW; Shillington, PA
Aug 5 - CAPW; “Night Of Legends”, Cleveland, OH JD/April vs Rob Starr/Lexi Lane
Oct 19 - WrestleFanFest; Cow Palace, San Fran
Oct 20 - WrestleFanFest; Cow Palace, San Fran
Oct 21 - WrestleFanFest; Cow Palace, San Fran
– JD Michaels
(5/15/07)
Posted with the permission of JD Michaels. Not to be re-posted without the permission of JD Michaels!
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