Abraham Washington Recalls Auditioning For Vince McMahon, Vince's Reaction, His New Character

The Abraham Washington character in WWE was short-lived thanks to an untimely firing following an on-air rape joke. Washington talked about where he wanted to take his character had it kept going when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"In my mind, I've always wanted to wrestle. But in this industry, if you're given an opportunity then you go with the opportunity? I was hoping that position would lead to something in the ring. On the house shows we were doing things but I never got into the ring and worked a match," Washington said.

"At FCW all we did was train in the ring so I felt a little incomplete. I didn't mind being a manager but when I'm watching the guys in the ring, I wanna wrestle too. But you take what you're given and try to make the best out of a situation and that's what I tried to do. Unfortunately, I got a little too creative and took liberties on the mic. It backfired and I shot myself in the foot and here we are today."

Washington is among the many WWE Superstars to host his own in-ring segment as The Abraham Washington Show was set up as a talk show. He talked about the pressure in doing that kind of segment and what Vince McMahon thought of his audition.

"That first episode was pretty rough. I think I had the Bella Twins on there. First of all, when I was in FCW I was doing a presidential gimmick and that's where the Abraham Washington name came from. I was told that I was gonna be cutting a promo, but I had to cut a promo for Vince McMahon," recalled Washington. "Come to find out, it was not only for Vince but for the entire room full of writers and producers. So, I had to come up with something that would blow them away."

Washington came up with a promo he was proud of and at the end Vince stood up and gave him applause, so all the writers did too. A week later he found out he had his own talk show and he was like, "Oh, holy crap!"

"Following behind those greats that have had talk shows, I just wanted to do my best. The thing in my opinion that saved the show was Tony Atlas. Tony was great ? nothing but positive things to say about Tony. I was fortunate and blessed to be able to work with him. Just being there in general and doing what I love to do. Being around the environment was great," Washington said before recalling Atlas' infamous, hearty laugh.

"That laugh saved me until at least the end of ECW."

Washington received hands-on instruction from Vince McMahon at times and he talked about working with the boss.

"Vince is a serious dude. I don't think everybody knows how to approach him but he's very personable. But at the same time, that's the boss," Washington said before bringing up the situation where Titus O'Neill was suspended after grabbing Vince's arm. Washington says he would have never done that and even though Vince is cool, you have to respect him.

"Before The Abraham Washington Show, he would come out and tell me how he wanted it to be. 'Yes sir. Yes sir.' Definitely a genius and it was great to be able to work with him after watching WWF as a kid and his commentary. He's a plethora of knowledge."

Washington has a new character called Rev. Jeremiah Constantine and he talked about that gimmick.

"Abraham Washington had run its course and it was time for something new. Reinvention is always good for someone's persona. Just like Constantine, the Roman Emperor, he saw the sign of the Christ in the sky and he had a revelation. It set him on a new path and that's what happened with me. I had a revelation in the sky and now I'm on another path," stated Washington who was then asked if Constantine is a good guy or a bad guy.

"He's a Reverend so he has to be a good guy. But like all Reverends, or people in general, we've sinned and we always seek to do better. Maybe he's a tweener and can go either way, but I'm striving for the best."

Washington then talked about where he wants to take Rev. Jeremiah Constantine.

"Currently I'm located in Ft. Lauderdale and have been working out with Coastal Championship Wrestling. I've worked through a few personas but I feel this is the one I want to invest my energy into," Washington said before noting he's preparing for a competition. "After that, who knows? I would love the opportunity to get back on TV. AEW's doing great things. WWE, we shall see. I don't know ? the door's open, at least on my end. I would love to get back out there and get in the ring this time and show the world what I can do."

You can follow Rev. Jeremiah Constantine on Twitter @JeremiahConsta3.

Washington's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In the full interview Washington discusses his new Rev Jeremiah Constantine persona, the controversial Kobe Bryant joke that he made on RAW, his WWE release, ACH publicly venting about his WWE unhappiness, his audition for Vince McMahon, working with Tony Atlas and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.

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