Andrew Flintoff has revealed he almost went from England wicket-taker to fighting the Undertaker after being offered a three-year WWE contract.
The cricket legend, who took 219 wickets during his 11-year England Test career, has opened up on how he rejected an offer from WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.
Flintoff retired from cricket in 2010 after falling out of love with the game – before briefly returning to the sport four years later to compete for Brisbane Heat in the 2014/15 Big Bash League.
But during his first retirement, the 47-year-old had a chance to be a wrestling icon – which would have seen him wow crowds at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
He even mapped out a fight with WWE great the Undertaker, where he underwent a two-week training camp at the WWE Performance Center in Tampa.
However, despite the money on offer being ‘obscene’, Flintoff ultimately decided against permanently residing in America.
Speaking on The Overlap’s Stick to Cricket about how the WWE offer came about, Flintoff commented on how he was living in Dubai at the time as he planned his next career move.
He said: “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’!”
Having pitched an idea to fight The Phenom in Manchester, Flintoff was soon sent over to the US to showcase his talent after getting himself back into peak condition.
He continued: “What happened was, it got to a point in Dubai where I was unfit, I’d put weight on and I was just not in a good place.
Flintoff was one of England’s most feared players throughout the 2000s and was a thorn in Australia’s sideGetty Images - Getty And he came close to sealing a shot at the Undertaker had he opted to accept WWE’s offerWWE“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.
“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!
“Dave Roberts ‘Rooster’ who was a physiotherapist who lived with us throughout my career, lived with us and looked after us. I asked him to send a trainer over to Dubai for six weeks because I needed to bulk up.
“He sent this fella over, I trained my nuts off, got fit and then the WWE flew me to Tampa. Me and the missus have gone over to Tampa, I’ve got two weeks at wrestling academy.
“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.”
Flintoff would ultimately turn to boxing – outpointing Richard Dawson in his only professional bout in 2012Getty Images - Getty He has revealed he opted for the squared circle after turning down a WWE careerThe OverlapBut unfortunately for Flintoff, he was quickly reminded of how intense and dangerous WWE is after suffering broken ribs – though that wasn’t the reason for his decision to reject their offer.
He added: “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.
“I said to this physio, ‘I think I’m having a back spasm,’ so they’re all like, ‘Ohh 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.
“I said, ‘Mate, I think I’ve broken my ribs.’ He said I’d be in so much pain and I was like, ‘Mate, I want to cry but I can’t in there.’ I went for an X-ray and this fella who puts it up asked, ‘What do you do’?, I said, ‘I’m a wrestler,’ He asked, ‘How long have you been doing this’ and I said, ‘Two days.’
“We did all of that – on the third day you do acting lessons, but I didn’t think I was in on it.
“I was just sitting minding my own business and they said, ‘Fred, you’re up.’ I got up, and I had the microphone in my hand saying how hard I am, but I didn’t like that so said, ‘Can I do another?’
“I looked out and there were all of these weird and wonderful-looking people, so I just tore them all a new one. They were trying to get me to wind up after two minutes, but I was not finished.
“Two weeks later, I got an email from WWE, saying, ‘You can’t do your documentary because you’ll give the secrets away, we want to put you on a three-year contract.’
“They said, ‘We’ll fast-track you and in 18 months you’ll be at WrestleMania and Royal Rumble.’
“The money was obscene, but we wanted to move back from Dubai.
“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.”
Andrew Flintoff, England: “Freddie was as good as a cricketer gets. On the field it was easy to captain him; just give him the ball. Off the field, it was a lot harder…In 2012, Flintoff took to the squared circle in Manchester where he outpointed Richard Dawson in his only professional fight.
He continued to work in the media which saw him named as one of Top Gear’s presenter in 2018.
And it was a job that almost claimed his life following a horrific high-speed accident in December 2022, which saw his face dragged across the tarmac.
The 2005 Ashes hero, who suffered life-changing injuries, was airlifted to hospital where he underwent a five-hour long operation.
Today, Flintoff is back working in cricket as the head coach of the England Lions, with the side having a tour against South Africa in August to look forward to.
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