Joe Hendry has shared a story he says he has never told publicly about how he believes he ruined a WWE tryout in front of William Regal.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet’s live show in Tampa, Hendry recounted the moment, which he framed as his worst tryout performance ever, despite the actual feedback from the day being positive.
“So we do the tryout, and we’re getting a bunch of feedback. And so William Regal is telling us, like, right guys, you know you’ve done a good job. Like, need to focus on physiques. You need to focus on your technique. And I’m thinking, all right, cool. So I go into catering, right? And all the other guys are talking about how good the cake is in catering. I’m like, these guys, we’ve just been told to work on our physiques, and they’re eating cake. I’m like, I’m gonna show him that I’m eating rice and chicken. He’s gonna see that, and he’s gonna go, he’s coachable.”
Regal sat down with the tryout class for two hours of advice. Hendry said he can still quote almost every word of what Regal told them about the business, which he summed up as: a wrestler’s job is to build trust with the audience so they know they’ll be entertained every time they see you, at every level of the business, not just on TV.
That part went well. The part with the rice did not.
“He’s giving us these amazing lessons. I’m sitting there with my chicken and rice, and he’s in the middle of this very impassioned speech, and while I’m chewing, this little piece of rice just falls down the back of my throat, and I just try and clear my throat a little bit to get rid of it, and I inhale the piece of rice.”
Hendry says he had a choice between coughing loudly and interrupting Regal mid-sentence, or trying to clear his throat quietly. He picked the wrong one.
“He’s telling the story, and I go, we’re gonna do that. I just end up, like, accidentally inhaling another eight grains of rice. And so he’s telling this story, and I’m there, and I’m like, and the guy sitting next to me like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And he’s in the middle of a story.”
The pressure built until he had to react.
“I just go and basically spat rice all over the table where everyone’s eating and he’s telling the story. So from his perspective, he’s telling the story. And I’ve just gone, oh yeah. So you know, maybe that was the reason. Who knows? But no, he sold it beautifully. He just says, ‘Can’t take you anywhere, Joe.’ And they walked off.”
Hendry says he has been a WWE Rosebud roughly seven times across his career, and was Rusev’s lawyer in 2014 in his first non-wrestling WWE appearance. His first-ever pro match outside training school was at a WWE tryout in 2013 in front of CM Punk, Big Show, William Regal, and Fit Finlay. He officially signed with WWE in November 2025.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
