Erick Rowan reveals what WWE originally wanted him to have in his pet cage

Steve Fall from NBC Sports Boston interviewed former WWE star Erick Rowan. Here are some highlights:

Rowan said he wasn’t ready for his story to stop in WWE when he got released:

“I wasn’t ready for my story to stop on that adventure. It’s been a couple of years. I’ve stepped my toes into other avenues of entertainment which I fell in love with. I’ve been lucky enough to do some bigger arena shows in 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 would 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 continuity in wrestling. The last time anybody saw me I had a pet spider that died, so I would like to talk about my years of recklessly wandering the earth finding reason and purpose for life without my precious spider.”

On what was supposed to happen to the spider:

“Seth Rollins was the big babyface at the time and I was told it was going to be a pet rat, which is great because it tied into my last feud where I tried to kill a man being Roman Reigns with a vehicle. Probably get a court appointed therapist who told me to get a therapy pet which would have been a rat. I’m like, this is great. This is going to be good for me, and hopefully draw some more eyes to the product and a great story, and Seth backstage was going to curb stomp it by accident. I was like, this is a great idea to start a feud even though I have to carry around the cage and not really tell a story for a couple weeks, but then he turned heel close to a few weeks after that and it just kept getting extended and extended until the awesome reveal.”

On the AEW Brodie Lee tribute show:

“For me to be around those people was very therapeutic in a way. It was a tough night for everybody.”

On if there were conversations about him becoming part of AEW after the show:

“It was never a conversation. I was doing and pursuing my own things. At that time especially I didn’t want to be that guy that distracts or reminds you of a loss, especially that quickly. With the Dark Order, I wanted nothing to do with it. That’s nothing to say that I’m better. What I’m saying is I didn’t want anything to do with it because that’s his legacy. If it’s going to fizzle out, I want it to fizzle out, but he made and created that in such a quick amount of time that he had left that I want that to be the memory of him, his TNT Championship, his dog collar matches. I want all that to be held up here and I want nothing to do with that. Even if there was a conversation, I wouldn’t have seen myself having a spot there.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Steve Fall at NBC Sports Boston with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.