Alex Hammerstone Recalls Portraying George Washington On WWE SmackDown

MLW star Alex Hammerstone recently looked back on his one-off appearance on the July 4, 2017, episode of WWE SmackDown, where he portrayed a muscular George Washington. Speaking on Fightful’s In The Weeds, Hammerstone recalled joining The New Day for their Independence Day rap battle against The Usos.

He noted that he was on the verge of signing with WWE at the time and that John Cena gave him a nod of approval backstage after seeing his physique. Here are the highlights:

On the moment: “I was working extra work for the WWE and I had some tryouts. I was in a phase where I was talking with the company and really close to possibly signing,” he began. “I’m doing this extra work and early in the day, we’re supposed to have tryout matches. I’m ready to go. It’s Fourth of July weekend and because of the holiday, none of the important players were there. Triple H wasn’t there. Vince (McMahon) wasn’t there, which was super rare. A lot of the main office players weren’t there. There is nobody important, who is a decision maker, to see us extras. Before we’re about to do matches, they come down as say, ‘Hey, we don’t have time to do matches. Go change.’ I was like, ‘Why am I here?’ A lot of people like to do extra work where they go for the first time and get to experience WWE backstage. They get to dress up like as a security guard and be on TV. I had already done that. I was at the stage where I was like, ‘I’m here for a job.’ I’m taking it super serious. They come back and say, ‘We need extras. Come dress up and get costumes.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ I didn’t do it. I didn’t go to rehersal or get a costume. I was one week away from a bodybuilding competition, so I was in incredible shape.

On his mindset: “I knew I looked great. Super tan, super lean, super ripped,” he added. “Right before it happened, I had this voice in my head, ‘If you get a chance to be on TV, go be on TV.’ I went to the costume truck, ‘Hey, I forgot my costume.’ They give me this full George Washington costume. I threw it all to the side, put on the wig and went out there just to show off my body on TV. I made sure I was positioned all the way towards the hardcam. We were standing backstage to go out and John Cena walked by. He’s walking, he stops, and he walked backwards, retracing his steps. He turns and [looks Hammerstone up and down, gives a thumbs up]. The other thing that happened was, the producer who planned the segment, walked over to us and was like, ‘Were you at the rehearsals?’ ‘Okay, we’re going out.’ I just ran through the curtain. That whole segment, I didn’t know what we were supposed to be doing, I was like, ‘I’m going to get myself on TV and look good doing it.’”