Aron Stevens Claims WWE Officials Tried To Downplay His Pops At Live Events

In an interview with Fightful’s Wrestling Perspective Podcast), Aron Stevens claimed that WWE tried to downplay the pops he would get from fans at their live events. Stevens wrestled in WWE as Damien Sandow from 2010 to 2016. Here are highlights:

On his WWE exit in 2016: “It’s funny, that was an interesting time in my life. I really had no desire to [wrestle], but [IMPACT] reached out to me shortly after I had left WWE. I had gotten a fair amount of press, from leaving WWE, way more than I thought, which was very flattering. I was not necessarily in the best space, in terms of my relationship with the wrestling industry; not to sound like I’m bitter because I’m not, I’m truly not. But look creatively at what the WWE was doing with me and what I felt I should be getting as far as opportunities based solely on the response I was getting from fans.”

On the reactions he got from the audience: “I did an autograph signing a couple of weeks ago, and one of the guys putting the signing on said, hey, I have to let you know something; my friend works for WWE and worked for them when you were there. I knew who he was talking about. They would get the house show reports back and it would list the biggest pops of the night; he said, “You were right there; it was [John] Cena and you.” Then it got to a point where they would bring that back to certain people in the office, who will remain nameless because I’m not that guy to name names and bury people. They said, don’t even mention him anymore. So that’s how far removed I was from any opportunity. They didn’t want to hear my name, yet they kept me on the road for whatever. It’s all good; that’s the entertainment industry, it isn’t ballet, it’s not all fair, and that’s life. But as a performer, I’m just thinking, what do I have to do? Because I was blowing the roof off the place. So I had a bitter taste in my mouth, and then I had the opportunity for IMPACT Wrestling, and many of my friends were there. So I got to go there and get creative and stuff. But then, ultimately, there was an administrative change, and I had to look in the mirror, and I left wrestling after that.”