Joe Hendry has revealed how he found out about his WrestleMania 41 match.
Randy Orton was left off of the Mania card after his scheduled opponent Kevin Owens had to pull out of the bout due to a neck injury. Still determined to be at the Show of Shows, The Viper decided that he’ll hold an open challenge, and it was answered by none other than the current TNA World Champion.
The viral star had an interview with Ariel Helwani after the PPV to discuss his opponent. While reports suggest that WWE had started considering Hendry as soon as KO made the announcement, the TNA star revealed that he only found out about it the week before the match:
“So, I was in the airport, and I got a text from Triple H saying, ‘can you talk?’ And you know, I was at WWE World. I was scheduled to be there, to be signing things. I thought, you know, maybe something to the effect of, you know, they’ve got the Slammies, or it might be like, you know, doing a promo at WWE World.”
Joe Hendry noted that he was not expecting to make his WrestleMania debut even when Triple H got on the call with him. He was surprised when the match was brought up:
“So, I’m kind of expecting that’s what the call is going to be. And Triple H says, ‘Listen, I’m sure you’re aware that Randy needs an opponent.’ And, yeah, that threw me off completely. I was in a state of shock, but I just, you know, I knew there was a job to be done.”
The WrestleMania bout wasn’t the only WWE appearance for Joe Hendry in the past week. He returned to NXT on Tuesday and teased a champion vs. champion match. You can check out more about it here.
