Triple H decides against signing The American Wolves to WWE contracts

Just over six weeks ago, we reported that The American Wolves, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards, were undergoing a one week tryout at WWE's new performance centre in Orlando, despite Triple H's initial gut instincts that they were too small to be worth investing in.

So you may be wondering whether seeing them perform in front of his own eyes for the first time ever at the NXT tapings on Nov. 21st changed Hunter's mind?

It seems that just one botched spot involving Richards that wasn't even his fault was enough for The Cerebral Assassin to decide that he had seen enough, cut their tryout period short and tell them both thanks, but no thanks, as Dave Meltzer explained in his subscriber only Jan. 6th Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

"Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards won’t be back at the next NXT tapings and aren’t going to be offered a contract.... But after the first taping, HHH made the decision not to sign them. There were stories out that it was because in the match with The Ascension, there was a spot where Richards landed on his head, which was an accident. Essentially, when they were working on their match, Viktor picked Richards up without dipping down first. So when they did the match at the tapings, Richards went up, and this time, Viktor dipped and the end result was Viktor lost him and he landed on his head. The ref told them to go home under orders from HHH in the back. They did, but not right away."

Though Meltzer found it hard to believe that one mistake alone was enough to doom them, given Hunter's MO of being quick to find flaws in outside talent that have been heavily hyped as super workers in the dirtsheets, it's certainly possible. Together with Davey's wellknown reputation of being a pain in the butt to deal with, similar to Low Ki who couldn't last in the WWE environment, The Wolves were in a position where they couldn't put a single step wrong and even then their small stature would mean that they would have to put forth a few more stellar performances to get given a WWE deal.

So what now for Richards and Edwards? Given that Davey has burnt his bridges with Ring Of Honor by badmouthing them in a magazine interview and also with New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH by cancelling tours at short notice, the only option left for him seems to be TNA. Eddie could follow him there or return to ROH on his lonesome as he left the company on good terms.