Curt Hawkins On How His Losing Streak Came About, Says He Talked Creative Into Not Giving Him a Win

On the last week’s Talk is Jericho, Curt Hawkins talked about his return to WWE that led to his famous losing streak and why he pushed for it to continue. Hawkins returned in July of 2016 just as Smackdown was going to a live format on USA Network and returned to his enhancement talent ways. At one point the amount of losses that he’d taken became apparent to fans and it was turned into a storyline, to where he went 269 losses before finally winning alongside Ryder at WrestleMania 35, capturing the Raw Tag Team Championship from The Revival.

Hawkins talked about his return and how he realized the losing streak was a thing, plus how he actually had to convince the creative team into not giving him a win at one point. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On how his return to WWE came about: “It was like exactly two years [after I left]…I believe with that new — Smackdown was going live, and they had just made one of those big cuts like they just made last week. And I think they kind of went like, ‘Oh s**t. We just fired all these guys, but we need guys now for this and that.’ And what I was told, was that Vince wanted guys back that didn’t need to be taught, guys that just knew how to work television and so there wasn’t much. So they made a small list, and he handpicked a couple of us off of it. And it was like me and Jinder [Mahal], and Rhyno and Shelton [Benjamin]. And that’s how it all happened.”

On ending up back as enhancement talent right out of the gate: “And then — I don’t wanna say I was misled, but I was like, ‘Cool, this is gonna be sweet.’ And I had vignettes and stuff, but they really just wanted me back in my own spot, which is making other people look good. Which is fine, that’s pro wrestling. It is what it is, and I love it either way. I was grateful for it.”

On his losing streak: “What really happened was some, I think some dirt sheet reporter or something wrote some article, like, ‘Curt Hawkins loses 100th consecutive match in a row.’ And it was getting tweeted to me, and s**t like that. And I was sitting there going, ‘Well, that’s definitely true,’ you know? But I was like, ‘That’s awesome!’ Like, ‘Who cares? Let’s keep it going!’ So I remember I was pitching it to everybody, like, ‘Let me just keep losing! I’m losing anyway, just make sure I keep losing.'”

On having to talk Creative out of giving him a win: “I was supposed to beat Heath on Superstars, or Main Event or whatever, and that was finally when I went to a writer, I made him go to Vince like, ‘Can you tell him I’d rather not?’ It was in Barclays, and he said to me like, ‘Let Hawkins get one in his hometown.’ And I was like, [sucks in breath], ‘Ehhh… I’d rather not, let’s see where this goes.’ And I just knew that kind of organically, if I committed to it something would come of it. And it finally like, I didn’t realize how much I was gonna lose. But it finally did pick up steam where I truly felt like people were invested in my matches like they had never been before. Whether I was in Long Island, or like, Paducah, people knew I was the guy that was losing all the time, and they wanted to be there to see me actually win. So people were getting in, it felt good.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.