Report: Reason Why Timothy Thatcher Signed With WWE Revealed

On Tuesday,

confirmed they had signed former EVOLVE and wXw star Timothy Thatcher. He has been assigned to NXT and will now report to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Many were surprised at Thatcher's decision to sign with WWE. Although he has history with Imperium members WALTER and Marcel Barthel, among others, many fans assumed he would remain on the Independent scene for the foreseeable future.

that Thatcher did not have his heart set on signing with WWE, and actually had been trying to get a deal to wrestle in Japan for years. However, he was never approached by New Japan Pro Wrestling or even by a smaller promotion like Dragon Gate or All Japan Pro Wrestling.

While promotions in Japan were seemingly uninterested, WWE had been trying to sign The British Messiah for the last five years as they were impressed by a match he had with Chris Hero over WrestleMania 31 weekend.

With Thatcher being 36 years old and WWE's long term interest, the former EVOLVE Champion ultimately decided to sign with the company as he seemingly gave up hope of getting a deal in Japan.

For the avoidance of doubt, Meltzer said: "The deal with Thatcher is he’s 36 years old and he’s been trying to get a deal in Japan and has been unsuccessful in getting the deal in Japan. That was his goal and at some point you go in there and just go 'It’s not happening'…The year they had WrestleMania in San Jose and Chris Hero wrestled Thatcher in San Jose, I think it was on an EVOLVE show, ever since then Thatcher’s been on their radar, so its been like almost five years and he’s had an open offer to come."