Former WWE Star Turned Down High Paying Role To Continue Wrestling

Andre Chase says he turned down a higher-paying WWE coaching position in favor of signing as a wrestler, telling the company he came to WWE to compete and was not ready to stop.

Chase, whose real name is Chance Barrow, revealed the details of his WWE tryout experience on the Between Two Jobs podcast. WWE official Canyon Cemen presented him with the unusual situation after an early pandemic-era tryout.

“It was the first tryout in COVID. Essentially, he was like, ‘You’re an interesting case because we actually want to sign you as a coach. Come to the tryout anyway and we’ll talk and discuss what we have for you. We think you’d be a great coach.’ I’m 31 and I’m not ready to stop wrestling yet. They made it clear it was one or the other. There were no player coaches.”

When the callback came, the financial offer for coaching was clearly the better deal on paper.

“I get the call back in November from Canyon and he goes, ‘We really wanted you as a coach, but we enjoyed your tryout. What do you want to do?’ They gave me the numbers, and the coach was a much higher salary than what it was starting as a wrestler. I was like, ‘Do I take the money and call it a day on my career?’ They made it clear you can’t do both. The money was appealing and attractive, but I came here to be a wrestler, so I’m gonna be a wrestler. I called him and told him. He was a bit surprised. ‘You know the pay difference, right?'”

Chase went on to become a two-time NXT Tag Team Champion. Before joining WWE, he spent over a decade on the independent circuit, working for Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling NOAH, and Chikara as Harlem Bravado alongside his brother Lance Bravado as The Bravado Brothers.