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3. Elijah Burke Turned Down Spot In The Spirit Squad

Former WWE star Elijah Burke, who now wrestles as Da Pope, gave an interview with Lucha Libre Online that produced a few interesting nuggets, including the fact that he was once pencilled in as a member of the Spirit Squad before turning it down. 

According to Burke:

"The opportunity was presented by Vince McMahon himself. And Vince McMahon told me along with the other original members of the Spirit Squad that we were going to make a lot of money because it was his idea. And he was going to push it obviously, because it was his own idea, his own creation. Vince got on a plane one day and thought to himself, ‘Ha! People hate cheerleaders, ha ha ha! I’ll get cheerleaders!’. And so, that’s what he did. He got some male cheerleaders, and he wanted me to be one of them. And I politely turned it down, as I didn’t think I could’ve did that role any justice".

While the decision to say 'no' to an idea pitched by the Chairman himself got him heat with some backstage, Burke believes it actually helped him in the eyes of his boss: 

“[I got] a bunch of heat for turning it down by some of the boys who saw it as squandering an opportunity, you know, for telling Vince McMahon no. And Vince McMahon appreciated the fact that I was open, honest, and was man enough to say this it’s not for me. And Vince made sure that — he sent me back down to OVW and said, ‘We’ll bring you back when we have something for you'". 

Another interesting tidbit was Elijah claiming that his former tag partner Sylvester Terkay was discussed as an opponent for The Undertaker at WrestleMania 23 in 2007.

"It’s crazy, because that WrestleMania, the whole plan was for Sylvester Terkay and The Undertaker. And Pope was supposed to, obviously — and I had no problem with it! Young Elijah Burke riding the coattails of Sylvester Terkay. To go against the Undertaker. They brought Sylvester Terkay in specifically because Undertaker was and is a huge MMA guy. And so, Undertaker loved the physicalness and the legitness of the MMA. And he loves to bring that time of wherewithal, and create that same type of magic inside the wrestling ring".

It obviously never happened, as The Phenom successfully challenged Batista for the World Heavyweight Title on that show, but it's incredible to think how high WWE officials were on Terkay for a time. 

h/t 411mania.com