Andrew Flintoff reveals how he nearly joined WWE, trained to face the Undertaker

India Today

17 hours ago

Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff has revealed that he once turned down an offer from WWE, having been approached directly by former chairman Vince McMahon.Speaking on The Overlap's Stick to Cricket podcast, the legendary all-rounder explained how the opportunity came about after he retired from professional cricket in 2010. Though he briefly returned to play for Brisbane Heat in the 2014–15 Big Bash League season, Flintoff had already begun exploring options outside the sport.advertisementBefore his BBL stint, Flintoff said he had started training with WWE and even discussed potential storylines, including matches against The Undertaker and appearances at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
"I just hid for a bit and started to wonder, 'What am I going to do now? Some of the TV offers started to come, which was never the plan — I stumbled into that. I nearly joined the WWE, I didn't want to box, that was never the plan! I would have been called 'Big Fred'!"Flintoff added that his initial motivation was to regain fitness, and his childhood love for wrestling inspired him to pursue the WWE route.'I wanted to get fit again, but I needed motivation. As a kid, I loved WWE, so I came up with this idea, because I was doing League of Their Own with Sky, to fight the Undertaker in Manchester.'advertisement'I wrote this treatment up and presented the idea to Sky, it started gathering momentum and next minute it's being passed onto WWE. I was in contact with the WWE, Vince McMahon!'As the idea took off, Flintoff was flown over to WWE's academy in the United States for initial training, where he quickly realised the level of physical punishment involved.'They fly us over business class, next morning we get in the car and go to WWE's academy, two massive units all branded. We're sitting in the car and these things are walking past me, like 6ft 8in monsters.'My missus asked, are you going to be okay? I said, 'Yeah, I'll be fine.' I walked in — on the first day, nobody liked me because it's really competitive with 60 of us all wanting a contract with the WWE — then this English lad walked in."Despite his enthusiasm, things took a turn when he suffered an injury during the intense training sessions."So I go in and we do the warm-ups, then they put me in the ring for three hours and I just ran the ropes, I'd run into someone and they'd throw me. The second day I went in there, I had lashes all down my back and my missus said, 'Are you alright with this?' I was sore and thought something's not right here,' he recalled.advertisement'I said to this physio, 'I think I'm having a back spasm,' so they're all like, 'Oh the English lad's got a back spasm,' so they put me on the couch, he's pushing me and I can feel my ribs separating,' he added.Flintoff also worked on his mic skills, but ultimately chose not to pursue the WWE opportunity due to family considerations.'The money was obscene, but we wanted to move back from Dubai,' he said.'The kids wanted to play cricket and didn't want to go to America, so I just changed it to boxing and had a fight instead,' he added.Boxing, Top-Gear and Coaching RolesShortly after, Flintoff took on a professional boxing bout against Richard Dawson, winning on points.Since then, he has enjoyed a varied post-cricket career, including hosting roles on Top Gear and serving as a consultant coach with the England men's team and the England Lions.- EndsMust Watch