Former NFL Star Reveals Why Talks With WWE Fell Apart

The WWE is no stranger to bringing in NFL stars to try their hand at battling in the squared circle, and at one point it seemed like former San Diego Chargers linebacker and now NFL Network analyst Shawn Merriman was close to following that path. Merriman was a guest on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, and while talking about his move into MMA the topic of WWE came up. Merriman would appear in WWE a few times over the course of several years, and at one point it might have turned into a full-time thing, though it ended up not happening, and he explained why it ended up falling through.

Merriman was a big-time WWE fan growing up, saying “Obviously for one, growing up and being a fan of it. I don’t know anybody that was around my age that didn’t watch WWE, just growing up in general. Every time I got home from school, I was going to watch. If I had practice, I was going to watch WWE. So just watching from that standpoint. But I started talking to Paul, Triple H, before I retired, probably in 2011. We were talking about it at an event.”

“We started kind of going back and forth, at an event in LA I believe it was, and I think I came out at One Night Stand. There was a PPV I did in San Diego and I was part of the show,” Merriman said. “I got really good feedback, and then we started to keep in conversation. I told Paul ‘hey I’m going to retire here, probably in the next whatever.’ So the plan was to work for the NFL Network, and then train half the time and then the other half of the time spend in Orlando at the Performance Center.”

It looks like the timing was an issue though, as the WWE Network launched shortly after and then layoffs hit.

“So I left, went back to NFL Network, and now I’m trying to work out schedules and now I’m talking contract,” Merriman said. “One of the biggest holdups I think is this whole ‘Lights Out’ thing. We go back to me holding ‘Lights Out’ and name rights. That kind of ruffles some feathers a bit too. But all in all, I think the thing that really didn’t work out was they were launching the Network around that time. And there were a bunch of layoffs and there was a lot going on at the time. I think they laid off about 10% employees of all of WWE.”

“It was like ‘come in as Shawne Merriman and we’ll figure everything else out.’ I was like ‘guys, I’ve already kind of built this name. And more importantly, you want to have this there. And I’ll work with everybody. Every licensing department, everybody in every division.’ I knew everybody there in the company. Everybody who was somebody, I knew them, talked to them on a daily basis,” Merriman said. “So I knew exactly what they wanted and what they needed for me to do. And I told them ‘Lights Out is what you guys want. So let’s figure this out first.’ It just kind of fizzled out after that. I did some stuff on the Network, hosting WrestleMania and Monday Night RAW, and I believe I did Smackdown too. And I still talk to a lot of people there too, to this day. So who knows?”

As for new stars, Merriman feels they should be pursuing more former athletes. “They love monsters, right?” Merriman said. “The company wants the big, athletic guy. They want to go after athletes. And I’ve always said more athletes should be doing that. My boy Mojo (Rawley) was playing ball, and you’ve got a couple other guys who played ball as well. It’s the perfect fit. When you’re looking for looks, athleticism and what you’re trying to build, they should be going after more former athletes.”

Would you have wanted to see Merriman in the ring in WWE full-time? Let us know in the comments!

H/T Wrestling Inc