Chris Masters has revealed that he was scheduled to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship before an intervention over prescription painkiller abuse ended those plans. Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Masters said WWE had him lined up to win the title at a four-way match in Las Vegas, but pulled him from the planned finish after becoming aware of his issues.
“There was a four-way match that night for the Intercontinental Title that I was slated to win,” Masters said. “But then they had caught wind that I had the issues I had, and I had an intervention, and basically told me, you’re going to rehab. So I screwed that.”
Masters acknowledged that his mindset at the time made the situation worse. “My priorities just were not in the right place, because I remember being bitter about it and wanting to stay in that place of addiction and being unreasonable,” Masters said. “But it’s tough, like when you get there, you can be irrational. You can do irrational things. It starts to control you and stuff like that.”
Masters also revealed that a potential WWE Tag Team Championship win with Carlito was taken away for reasons outside of his control. “Carlito and me were supposed to win them at that WrestleMania, but it literally got switched like the day before,” Masters said. “We were penciled in to win it. But then Carlito, they wanted him to turn babyface, and the Spirit Squad, they kind of wanted to get the belts on them somehow to give them some steam. So that was that.”
Masters said he also believes John Cena may have played a role in him not becoming WWE Champion during the period when Vince McMahon was exploring the idea. “There was a point where Vince was playing with the idea of making me the youngest champion,” Masters said. “But I’m pretty sure Cena gave me probably the thumbs down at some point. We never mixed too well for whatever reason.”
Masters has been open in previous interviews about his struggles during his first WWE run, which ended with his release in 2007. He returned to WWE in 2009 and was released again in 2011. He has spent the years since working the independent circuit and has spoken candidly about the personal issues that impacted his career during that era.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
