During a recent appearance on the “Stories With Brisco And Bradshaw” podcast, Dean Muhtadi (formerly Mojo Rawley) recalled his wrestling origins. He said,
“When I started playing football, any [wrestler] that kinda did both was right up my alley. When I was super young, Ultimate Warrior was my guy. Just the energy and the colors. Goldberg was another big one with the spear. I just liked those really intense guys, physical, brawling brutes.”
Muhtadi’s football career was derailed after suffering a calf injury during the Arizona Cardinals training camp, which made him consider a future in wrestling. He said,
“I was talking to the Jets and Raiders, actually, and I was thinking I was gonna go to one of them, when I had this opportunity to meet with WWE. It turns out, [Gordon Gronkowski] was college roommates with Mike Rotunda [aka IRS] at Syracuse. So ‘Big G’ called over to …