Following his retirement from cricket, Andrew Flintoff recounted on Monday how he nearly went from being one of England's greatest cricketers to competing against The Undertaker after receiving an "obscene" offer from WWE. The deal fell throught when Flintoff, owing to family committments, had to turn down the deal offered by then WWE owner, Vince McMahon.
During his 12-year career for England, Flintoff participated in 227 international matches in various forms until retiring in 2010.
The 47-year-old was notably approached by WWE during his first period of retirement with a hefty deal that included performances at WrestleMania and Royal Rumble, which culminated in a matchup with The Undertaker.
Despite the enormous salary, Flintoff turned down the offer and chose not to move to the United States, even though he trained for two weeks at the WWE Performance Center in Tampa.
Flintoff disclosed that he discovered the WWE arrangement after he began to get broadcasting offers following his retirement.
"I just hid for a bit and started to wonder, 'What am I going to do now?' Some of the TV offers started to come, which was never the plan—I stumbled into that. I nearly joined the WWE. I didn't want to box; that was never the plan! I would have been called 'Big Fred'!" Flintoff said on Overlap's Stick to Cricket podcast.
Flintoff then opened up on his pitch to fight the Undertaker in Manchester and his training for the big bout.
"What happened was, it got to a point in Dubai where I was unfit; I'd put on weight, and I was just not in a good place. I wanted to get fit again, but I needed motivation. As a kid, I loved WWE, so I came up with this idea because I was doing League of Their Own with Sky, to fight the Undertaker in Manchester.
I wrote this treatment up and presented the idea to Sky; it started gathering momentum, and the next minute it's being passed onto WWE. I was in contact with the WWE, Vince McMahon! Dave Roberts' Rooster' who was a physiotherapist who lived with us throughout my career, lived with us and looked after us. I asked him to send a trainer over to Dubai for six weeks because I needed to bulk up,” Flintoff explained.
"They fly us over business class; the next morning, we get in the car and go to WWE's academy, two massive units all branded. We're sitting in the car, and these things are walking past me, like 6 ft 8 in monsters. My missus asked, Are you going to be okay? I said, 'Yeah, I'll be fine.' I walked in on the first day, nobody liked me because it's really competitive with 60 of us all wanting a contract with the WWE—then this English lad walked in,” he added.
But after breaking his ribs, Flintoff was swiftly given a reality check, realizing how hazardous and intense WWE was.
"So, I go in and we do the warm-ups, then they put me in the ring for three hours, and I just run the ropes; I'd run into someone, and they'd throw me. The second day I went in there, I had lashes all down my back, and my missus said, 'Are you alright with this?' I was sore and thought, Something's not right here.
I said to this physio, 'I think I'm having a back spasm,' so they're all like, 'Ohh, the English lad's got a back spasm,' so they put me on the couch, he's pushing me, and I can feel my ribs separating. I said, 'Mate, I think I've broken my ribs.' He said I'd be in so much pain, and I was like, 'Mate, I want to cry, but I can't in there.' I went for an X-ray, and this fellow who puts it up asked, 'What do you do?' I said, 'I'm a wrestler.' He asked, "How long have you been doing this?" and I said, "Two days.” Flintoff said.
"We did all of that—on the third day, you do acting lessons, but I didn't think I was in on it. I was just sitting, minding my own business, and they said, 'Fred, you're up.' I got up, and I had the microphone in my hand, saying how hard I am, but I didn't like that, so I said, 'Can I do another?' I looked out, and there were all of these weird and wonderful-looking people, so I just tore them all a new one. They were trying to get me to wind up after two minutes, but I was not finished,” Flintoff further stated.
But after Flintoff realized that he wanted to return to Dubai and that his children were interested in cricket and did not want to travel to America, the agreement finally fell through.
"Two weeks later, I got an email from WWE saying, 'You can't do your documentary because you'll give the secrets away; we want to put you on a three-year contract.' They said, 'We'll fast-track you, and in 18 months you'll be at WrestleMania and Royal Rumble.'
The money was obscene, but we wanted to move back from Dubai. The kids wanted to play cricket and didn't want to go to America, so I just changed it to boxing and had a fight instead,” Flintoff revealed.
