Dave Meltzer has revealed that WWE once attempted to recruit him during a turbulent period for Monday Night RAW’s ratings.

Speaking on the November 1 edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, the veteran journalist explained that the offer came shortly after RAW’s viewership dropped below the 4.0 mark, prompting a call from WWE executive Ed Cohen.

“I got a phone call from Ed Cohen from WWE and it was just like… he said that he’s doing it out of, what was the word, like his idea. But I sensed it wasn’t his idea. And he’s like really pitching me and everything. I was like, nah. No interest at all. I had none,” Meltzer recalled.

Meltzer said he turned the offer down immediately, insisting that joining WWE’s creative team was never something he considered. “I shot it down immediately. I wanted to be a sportswriter. People go, ‘Oh, you wanted to be a booker? You wanted to be a pro wrestler?’ Never wanted to be any of those things… I wanted to be a writer, so I did that.”

He added that WWE even reached out to his Wrestling Observer colleague Bryan Alvarez through him, believing Alvarez’s wit and creativity would fit their team. That proposal went nowhere either. “They came to me and it was like… they thought he was really funny and creative… I pitched it to Bryan and he couldn’t… basically didn’t think he could last a week there, and probably couldn’t.”

While Meltzer stopped short of naming who initiated the recruitment effort, he strongly suggested Cohen was not acting alone, hinting that the move may have stemmed from higher up in WWE’s leadership.