• Home
  • Entertainment
  • Money Was Obscene Andrew Flintoff Almost Became A Wwe Superstar To Fight Undertaker

"Money Was Obscene" Andrew Flintoff Almost Became A WWE Superstar To Fight Undertaker

Akshita Patel

Andrew Flintoff's short stint with WWE [Source: @WrestlingWCC, @MrVAAuto/X.com]Andrew Flintoff's short stint with WWE [Source: @WrestlingWCC, @MrVAAuto/X.com]

Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff recently revealed that he nearly became a WWE wrestler after retiring from cricket. Flintoff was offered a massive deal to fight The Undertaker at WrestleMania, and the deal was real, and the training was intense, but in the end, he turned it down.

Speaking on The Overlap’s Stick to Cricket, Flintoff shared that after his cricket retirement in 2010, he didn’t have a plan. As TV offers came in, he also got a surprise offer from WWE co-founder Vince McMahon to enter the wrestling world. 

The plan was for him to appear in the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, with the final goal being a big match against WWE legend The Undertaker.

Andrew Flintoff Rejected WWE’s Offer 

As a kid, Flintoff was a big WWE fan, so the idea excited him. He trained hard in Dubai and then spent two weeks at the WWE Performance Center in Tampa, USA. But when training started, reality hit hard. 

"I nearly joined the WWE. 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 was in contact with the WWE, Vince McMahon. I trained my nuts off, got fit and then the WWE flew me to Tampa. 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," Flintoff said.

On his second day, Andrew Flintoff injured himself while running the ropes and later found out he had broken ribs. His back was covered in lashes from the ropes, and the physical pain made him question the decision. Nonetheless, he took acting lessons and even taped a wrestling promo before other prospective wrestlers.

Despite the pain, WWE offered him a three-year deal, promising fast-track access to major events like WrestleMania. The money was “obscene,” as Flintoff put it.

"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," he added.

But in the end, family came first. Flintoff said his children didn’t want to move to America. They wanted to return to Dubai and continue playing cricket, not wrestling. So he politely turned down the WWE offer and later switched to boxing, where he fought one match in 2012.