Mojo Rawley Says He Found Out About Being Drafted To WWE’s Main Roster When His Name Was Called

Mojo Rawley (Dean Muhtadi) would have preferred to be drafted with the last pick.

After nearly four years in NXT, Rawley was called up to the main roster during the 2016 WWE Draft. Appearing as a guest on a recent episode of Shoot Conversations with Chris Hero, Mojo revealed that he didn’t find out about the move away from NXT until his name was called. Additionally, he also talks about his pairing with Zack Ryder, and how they were initially told they’d only be in NXT for a couple of months.

“I found out when my name was called,” Mojo revealed. “I was drafted late. Honestly, I was hoping I was going to be the last pick in the draft because there’s a lot I could have done with that promo-wise. They drafted me individually, so I didn’t know if that meant I was going to be with Zack or if we were going to be split. At that point, I felt like it was so overdue. I don’t want to sound like a snob or anything, but it’s like, they told us a month or two in NXT with Broski and we’re getting called up, and it came about a year after that. For me, it was kind of ridiculous because I spent more time on the main roster for months. I already felt like I was out of NXT because I was literally only there to do TV.”

Mojo was drafted in the 11th round but made an immediate impact when he won the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He would turn on Ryder in November 2017 before moving to Raw in April 2018. Unfortunately, he would become mired in the 24/7 Championship chase, winning the belt seven times. On April 15, 2021, he was released from his WWE contract. 

Elsewhere during the interview, Rawley discussed a pitch for a new League of Nations with Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

Mojo recently announced that he will be the co-host of TMZ Sports, which airs Monday through Friday on FS1.

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