Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: adam maxted, Love Island, reality tv, wrestling, wwe

Buff Butler Career Blocked Love Island Star from WWE Contract

Following a fourth-place finish in 2016's second season of Love Island, Adam "Flex" Maxted seemed destined for an opportunity to sign with WWE, something the Belfast native had in mind throughout his tenure on the show, where he avoided engaging in some of the more lurid activities as his fellow contestants. But in a new interview with Bodyslam.net's Tea and Tights podcast, Maxted revealed that his WWE future had already been hampered by his life before Love Island as a Buff Butler.

Greetings, comrades! It is I, your El Presidente, and you know it is my favorite thing when my two favorite genres of entertainment — pro wrestling and reality television — collide!

Maxted first had to turn down offers from William Regal in 2017 following a WWE tryout due to an existing contract with NGW. But once that job became untenable due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the economy, Maxted says he was offered a pandemic era contract to on NXT UK by now-fired WWE Talent Relations exec Canyon Ceman due to Regal's recommendation, but the offer never came to fruition due to sordid details about his past.

From the podcast:

So, heres where the story takes its turn. So basically, and this is the truth, when I was younger I, when I worked in Belfast, I used to do do some work as a Buff Butler. Which involved wearing a bowtie and an apron and I'm mainly working at hen parties or you know women's events I'm walking round with Champagne, passing their drinks, nothing crazy, and I did that because it was easy money, I was in good shape at the time, I was like 17, 18, 19, you know just trying to earn some money. So I did that, but funnily at the time I did my try out in 2017 a couple of news article came out "Belfast stripper gets WWE try out" or "Belfast stripper is close to signing with WWE" so, I didn't think anything of those articles because I was like well no one is gonna even see those so doesn't even matter, I knew it wasn't true any way, I never got fully naked, you can google my name there's nothing like that out there, you know what I mean because I checked all this and didn't do it any way there might be the odd picture of me in an apron?

Maybe they thought his character would be too similar to Buff Bagwell's? You know, comrades, this is the exact same reason George W. Bush gave me for why I couldn't join NATO back in the early aughts, though I suspect he was just jealous of how good your El Presidente looked in a bowtie. Oh yes, I did a little bit of stripping in my younger days. And yes, I was as good at it as I am at running a totalitarian dictatorship, and anyone who says differently can spend the rest of their life in a secret work camp! Haw haw haw haw!

But anyway, Maxted says that his protests had no impact on the WWE PR department:

I pleaded my case for about 30 minutes on the phone, I didn't do it, WWE was always the goal for me why would I want to jeopardise myself and my career by doing something silly like that when I know you can't be naked there can't be footage of you out there do you know what I mean I am not silly. Even when I went on love island, I portrayed myself in a certain way as I was always worried about the cameras, how I was coming across, because WWE was always the goal. The producers took me outside one day, and told me like, you've never sworn once on your season of love island, you've never said a bad word. Because I was always thinking don't say anything silly because you know with WWE it can always come back to haunt you.

Though a contract wasn't in the cards for Maxted this time (and he's probably better off given the recent round of layoffs at the company), Maxted does believe the door may not be completely shut, leaving Maxted with a tiny opening through which he can slowly squeeze into… you know what, this metaphor is getting out of hand, isn't it? Anyway, Maxted hasn't given up on his dream of signing with WWE, despite their hangups about his past as a Buff Butler. You can read more highlights from the podcast here. Until next time, my friends: socialism or death!

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