Heath Slater Confirms When His WWE Non-Compete Ends: "There's A Buyer's Market, For Sure"
Heath Slater was one of the many WWE talents released last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. He had been with WWE since 2006 and discussed how he's holding up when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"The world is crazy right now, we all know it. We're all on the inside freaking out and wondering what's going on. But it's one of those things where I'm a guy that takes things day-by-day. So I know that by July 18, I'm gonna have to start making some moves and get my name out there again. As of right now, I'm been enjoy doing garage workouts, hanging out with my kids and wife and just living life," said Slater who confirmed that July 18 is when his 90-day no-compete clause ends.
"I can do whatever I want then. I'm hanging in there until then and just working on myself ? mentally and physically and all that good stuff."
Shortly after Slater was released, Cody Rhodes did an Instagram Q&A where he said AEW won't be sigining Slater. In a tweet Slater then responded that AEW not hiring him would be a bad business decision and he talked more about the back and forth between he and Cody.
"I don't know what that was about. It's just one of those things where when I hear my name, whether it's good or bad, I'm gonna say something back," stated Slater. "Who knows? He might have said it as a joke or he might not have.
"But I wanna go out there and prove a lot to myself. That's gonna get eyes on me and me trying to outdo myself. I'm ready for anything. I wanna dip my toes in all of it just because I never got to. I was in WWE for 14 years so I have never been anywhere else."
When asked where fans could expect to see him next, Slater revealed many possibilities.
"Honestly, I want to hit all the platforms. The reason why is because I've never had the opportunity to. I wanna do the indies. I wanna go to some of the big indie promotions and have a good time. And if ROH will let me come in and work some matches then great. TNA? Awesome. NWA with their old-school look is pretty cool. AEW the same way. I'm ready just to be myself, have a good time, go out there and not play a character and just have fun. I wanna enjoy wrestling again," said Slater.
It's been about two months since wrestling moved to no-crowd shows and Slater was asked what pro wrestling could look like come July 18th.
"We still may not be able to perform in front of a crowd by then. It's just one of those things where you might have conventions that can hold 10 people at a time. I don't know. Who knows," said Slater.
"Physically and mentally, I wanna get myself ready. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I might take it or I might not. Who knows? With what we're going through right now, it's really hard to say anything."
With wrestling the way it currently is during the pandemic and many companies cutting costs, Slater was asked if there's a buyer's market for guys like himself.
"There is a buyer's market. There's interest for sure. But who knows what's gonna happen two months down the road? That's why I say it's so crazy because all of my buddies say, 'Yeah we got released. But if there wasn't a pandemic then we could go and do some shows.' But we can't," Slater said before teasing a NEXUS reunion on the indies.
"Man, don't let the other guys hear that. It might happen. I've got so many NEXUS shirts [laughs]. I'm joking about that last part.
"That would be more than fun. That would be like starting the fire again and the flame might burn better."
You can follow Heath on Twitter @HeathSlaterOMRB. Heath's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.