Despite his entrance theme stating otherwise, getting Joe Hendry to WrestleMania 41 took more effort than just “saying his name.” The TNA Champion was a surprise addition to the night to fill in after Kevin Owens dropped out of his match, and his story detailing how the WWE kept his appearance proves how dedicated the company is to keeping things secret.
Slam Wrestling caught up with Joe Hendry after his big Mania moment, and he’s thrilled about how it went, despite ending with him catching an RKO and losing to Randy Orton. Pro wrestling insiders weren’t able to predict Hendry was Orton’s mystery opponent, and the wrestlers revealed that’s due in part to him appearing at WWE World as a special guest, and the wild way he was whisked into the arena:
I was like Inspector Gadget in the back of the car! I’m telling you they’ve got these little golf carts and they’re fast! They are fast! They had me on the back of one of these things. Boom! Straight to a secret room! You’re in! No one saw anything. It was a military operation. They don’t mess around when it comes to that. They do not.
struck a fan as Dominik Mysterio was being carted away from Night 2 of WrestleMania 41. Fortunately, there were no vehicular incidents mentioned by the Scottish wrestler when he talked about being whisked to Allegiant Stadium.
Joe Hendry’s surprise involvement in WrestleMania 41 was a bright point of the two-night event, which has received a fair amount of criticism as of late. In some ways, I think the fact that WWE was able to hide Hendry’s appearance gave more hope that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was also going to appear, though the wrestler-turned-actor was a no-show at the event. Instead, Travis Scott was brought out in his place, and apparently, he might continue to fill in for The People’s Champ at future events.
As for what’s next for Joe Hendry, he appeared at the first NXT show after WrestleMania 41, and it seems he’s going to once again challenge for the title. Whether the WWE will ever book a TNA talent to win one of its titles remains to be seen, but I would think if anyone is going to do it, it’s Hendry. Either that, or he’s going to be one of John Cena’s final opponents before the record-breaking champion retires, which might be just as much of an honor.
Monday Night Raw streams on Netflix on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tune in to see what’s in store for wrestlers and their stories as we get closer to Backlash, and gear up for another year of WWE wrestling.