Martin wanted to pin down Redblacks job before stint in pro wrestling
Before Chris Martin agreed to join the Ottawa Redblacks, he received a look from WWE.
However, after an April tryout at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando — Toronto Argonauts running back James Wilder was also among 40 athletes invited — Martin figured he still had unfinished business in football.
“(WWE) had reached out to me before, when I was in the NFL,” said Martin, who was also in training camp with the Redblacks in 2018, but was released after injuring a finger.
“That’s something I’m looking to do when I’m done, when I really do hang up the cleats. They were asking for a lot of time away from my family. I couldn’t commit. They said, ‘Whenever you’re ready, just let us know. Come back, we’ll work you out and see how things go.’”
Martin said he enjoyed the WWE experience anyway.
“I weighed about 315 pounds when I was out there. I was trying to do stuff with people who were like 150,” he said. “There was a Cirque du Soleil acrobat there. Everything he was doing I would have been able to do, minus the backflips.”
Standing six-foot-five, Martin would still be an imposing figure in a pro wrestling world that has its share of big men. Asked if he had figured out whether he’d best be suited to be a face (“good guy”) or heel (“bad guy”), Martin said:
“I’d have to be something scary, I think. People tell me I should go with the theme of a Dothraki from Game of Thrones or something like that.”
Martin was with the Orlando Apollos in the Alliance of American Football earlier this year, but the league suspended operations in April. He was added to the Redblacks roster a month later.
“I’m an entertainer. I play sports to entertain,” Martin said.
“If I can continue to entertain (playing football), that’s what I want to do.”