WALTER On Why He Never Wanted To Sign With WWE

On the latest episode of WWE After the Bell, NXT UK Champion WALTER joined the show to talk about signing with WWE after wrestling in Europe on the independent scene for over ten years. Walter spoke about wrestling in WXW, a German wrestling company, and transitioning to WWE.

"First of all, I was never thinking about signing with WWE," Walter said. "That was never a goal. I was happy in the process, sometimes you get lost too much when you think about the future. I have to force myself to do it as well, sometimes your brain is way ahead of you. I was never too keen about leaving Germany, leaving Europe to live in the United States.

"Most of the other wrestlers are willing to do it because it was their goal from day one, maybe early in their career that's where they want to go. For me, for the most time in my life, it was never a realistic thing that I could actually ever wrestle for WWE or something like that."

Walter noted that when he started in the wrestling business, WWE had no plans of creating a NXT UK brand and that was a major factor in him never wanting to come to the company. He spoke about traveling to the United States as being an issue. When WWE first announced they wanted to do an expansion to Europe, he was asked right away.

"When I started 10 years before, the wrestling world was very different," Walter said. "WWE was very protected or isolated from everybody else. It was so difficult to get into WWE and they opened up a few years ago and actually realized how much talent there is out there to work with.

"When everything came to talks with NXT UK at first, they talked to me right when it started and I was doing really well on the indies and I just wanted to see what else comes up and I just said wait and see what happens. When NXT UK came up and we talked again, it sounded like okay obviously the focus is to build something in Europe and the UK is the obvious first step in that process because England was the hottest place to [wrestle]."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE After the Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.