We caught up with the former Lakers center out in L.A. this week ... and as he gets ready to enter into the world of tangos and waltzes on this season of "Dancing With The Stars" -- we just had to ask how his WWE aspirations were going.
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00:00Welcome back to TMZ Sports, Mike and Mojo, Mojo Dwight Howard, of course, one of the
00:10best centers of the last generation.
00:13Now he's dancing, at least on the 33rd season of Dancing with the Stars.
00:19So Mojo, we had an opportunity recently to speak to Dwight.
00:23Now we didn't only talk to him about like the cha-cha and all the different, you know,
00:29the salsa or the different dances that he's going to be doing on the hit ABC show.
00:32We also asked about his wrestling future.
00:35Now if you didn't know this about Dwight, he is a, and has been, a massive wrestling
00:39fan for a really long time.
00:42So much so that, Mojo, and a lot of people will remember this, you go back to Summer
00:46Slam weekend 2022, Dwight Howard attended an open tryout that WWE holds for athletes,
00:54a lot of college football players, Mojo, as, as you know all about, who might be looking
01:00to transition into the squared circle.
01:02Well, Dwight was there at the tryout.
01:05We were told at the time WWE liked him a lot.
01:07So when we saw Dwight this week, Mojo, we asked him for an update on his wrestling future.
01:14I did not see this answer coming.
01:16What's going on with the WWE?
01:19Are you?
01:20WWE?
01:21Yeah.
01:22I heard you were.
01:23It's Dancing with the Stars.
01:24Well, I know.
01:25It's the wrong show.
01:26I know.
01:27But you're going to get into WWE now.
01:28Yeah.
01:29But you know what?
01:30You're big.
01:31I was talking to Rick.
01:32What's up, boss?
01:33How you doing?
01:34I was talking to Ric Flair.
01:35Uh-huh.
01:36He said he'll know if my knees is good for.
01:37Really?
01:38My knees feel good.
01:39It's just wrestling.
01:40Talking about picking up 300 pound dudes and all that stuff.
01:41Right.
01:42Nobody want to do that for their whole life.
01:43Dwight Howard is a massive dude.
01:44So, Ric Flair told Dwight Howard, don't go into wrestling because it's going to wreck
01:55your knees.
01:56Ric Flair gave Dwight Howard some fantastic advice here, Babcock.
02:02Really?
02:03Let me just say, Dwight Howard is a freak athlete, one of the strongest players in the
02:08NBA.
02:09I mean, the NBA always used to post clips of him working out in the gym and moving some
02:14serious weight.
02:15I mean, nobody ever expects basketball players to be able to move weight, but Dwight Howard
02:19absolutely could.
02:21But Dwight Howard is 38 years old right now for him to start over in a completely different
02:27career.
02:28It doesn't matter how big of a star he is.
02:30If he actually wanted to do this day in and day out, that is going to take years of training
02:37before he gets to a point where they can put them out there comfortably on TV.
02:42I mean, look, they can always do the thing where you train up somebody for, for one day,
02:46they put you with the best guys in the business and you spend two to three months rehearsing
02:52that one match.
02:54But that's how those one-off celebrities do it.
02:57You know, those guys that wrestle here and there for the guys that are doing this day
03:00in and day out.
03:01When you have a match, you, you might have 30 seconds heads up before you go out there
03:06and you got to go put on 20 minutes in front of a live crowd, live, hostile, crazy, unforgiving
03:13crowd.
03:14So Dwight Howard starting over in wrestling after this career, when his body's already
03:17taken that much damage, what a mistake that would be.
03:21Now don't get me wrong.
03:22WWE would love to have them.
03:24WWE would be glad to have anyone who is a celebrity with, with a big following.
03:28They'll take that any day of the week.
03:30They don't even need that person to wrestle it.
03:32That's the case.
03:33You know, you can be a manager, just come out there and talk some trash, do one move,
03:37just get your fan base to tune in.
03:39And that's a, that's a win for them.
03:41Hey, I'm not saying he couldn't do it for a little bit or here and there, but a full
03:45time career.
03:46Listen to Ric Flair, my man, the nature boy knows what he's saying.
03:48Nobody want to do that for their whole life.