Former WWE Superstar Mason Ryan recently spoke with WWE.com. Here are the highlights.
WWE fans who followed your career may be surprised to learn that you’re starring in a Cirque du Soleil show now. How did your role in KÀ come about?
After I left WWE I was still wrestling independently over in the U.K., in Japan and all over the states. One day I got a call from WWE, and they said, “We might have a job opportunity, if you’re interested, with Cirque du Soleil,” which, at that time in my life, seemed like the most random thing in the world, really.
Were you familiar with the show?
I had heard of Cirque du Soleil and knew they put on amazing shows, but I didn’t think my acrobatic ability was quite up there for what they did, but obviously I was very interested. So I sent my stuff away to Cirque du Soleil and I got a call a week or two later asking me to go for an audition, explaining that it was for the role of Chief Archer in KÀ. The show is more storyline based and I would be auditioning for one of the main bad guys in the show, which, you know, sounded great with me.
That is incredible that WWE had a role in helping you obtain the audition. Tell us more about the process.
The audition was going to be in the MGM Theatre, the KÀ theatre in [Las] Vegas. We did some physical stuff at the start, just to get them to check what our physical conditioning was like, and everyone was in great shape. After that, we got to do a lot of fun stuff. We got to jump on airbags; they wanted to make sure we could fall because of the staging of the show and how massive it is. We were all like little kids to be honest with you, having the time of our lives jumping into the air into these air bags.
Did you know you nailed it when it was over?
I left thinking, “If I get this, great, but if not, everything so far has been an amazing experience.” Then, maybe a week or so later, they called me up and offered me the role, which was mind-blowing, really. It was absolutely amazing and quite the whirlwind.
You can read the entire interview here.
