Zak Zodiac On His Failed WWE Tryouts, Barry Horowitz Regrets Not Facing Kurt Angle

During a recent appearance on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Zak Zodiac (brother of AEW wrestler and former WWE Superstar Saraya) reflected on his career and his failed tryouts with WWE.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On his tryouts in WWE: “To be honest, Chris, I’ve had six WWE tryouts in total. The last one being in March 2020. I flew out there, [did] my physical, [did] my blood, done everything. I was pretty much told that this was my time. Then the global pandemic happened. I’ve not heard [anything] since.”

On the feedback he received from the tryouts: “During these times, you know, there was always something. ‘You need to cut up. You need to put weight on. You need to get a persona. You need to do this. You need to do that.’ I would smash the trial. People like Finlay, and Arn Anderson, and Golddust — they’re like, ‘You’re great, lad. You’re a good worker. You’re solid. You know your stuff.’ The compliments I used to get [were] enough to give me the biggest head in the world.”

Zodiac on struggling with rejection: “I started thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ ‘Why do I keep being brought back? Why am I working so hard to do everything they’re asking of me, but I always fall at that last level. I just don’t get it.’ I struggled with rejection. I didn’t know how to take it.”

During a recent appearance on the “Under The Ring” podcast, Barry Horowitz regretted not wrestling Kurt Angle when they were both in their prime. Horowitz said,

“Hands down, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle. In my prime, if I was calling the match, I would want a 30 minute match with Kurt Angle and I would have him go over on me or you could do a 30 minute broadway and then have a rematch, and then of course Kurt goes over with his Angle Slam. I think we would bounce off each other, literally, for moves and holds. You got an Olympic gold medalist wrestling a guy who wrestled in high school and one year at FSU. There’s no comparison, but still, the fans don’t care about that, we’re doing pro wrestling right now. But yeah, that would be so cool.”

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