After being released from WWE in 2016, Alex Riley decided to make the transition from wrestling to acting and quickly found a small role as Steel Horse in the first season of Netflix's GLOW.
It was a fun appearance and one which Riley seemed extremely grateful for in interviews. Well, believe it or not, he wasn't actually the only wrestler considered by producers and some of them were big name WWE Superstars with a fair bit of acting experience under their belts. During a chat with Chavo Guerrero, Chris Jericho revealed that he was actually turned down in favour of Riley!
"[WWE] had a show in Edmonton and I don’t really like to audition, just not really my thing … they said ‘I got this thing for GLOW,’ and I’m like that sounds pretty cool, cause I don’t do anything cause I have to… I was like I like GLOW, so this will be fun. So I actually set up my little, uh, phone in the dressing room in Edmonton after a show in a room by myself and I auditioned for Steel Horse. And I didn’t get it, and not only didn’t I get it, but Alex Riley got it, who’s about a one on the scale of wrestling notoriety."
Guerrero went on to reveal that The Miz was also turned down, something which is rather ironic considering the fact that Riley was once portrayed as his protege on WWE programming!
Regardless, Riley did a fantastic job so it's fair to say that GLOW made the right choice here, eh?