Vince McMahon, Sr.
In March 2014, Rivera participated in a tryout for WWE. He was invited to the WWE Performance Center in Florida, where he was subjected to a series of tests. When questioned about this audition, Rivera discarded that being older than the prospects typically scouted by the promotion would affect his chances, believing that his experience and previous ties to the business gave him an edge over them and noting that some of the more recent additions had debuted over the age of thirty. In anticipation, Rivera underwent a quartering, where he improved his training and avoided alcohol and other distractions following the advice of his brother, who warned him of the challenge that WWE's itinerary represents. Despite not being contracted by the promotion, he employed the occasion that represented Carlos Colón's induction into the WWE Hall of Fame to lobby for the inclusion of José Miguel Pérez, another Puerto Rican wrestler that competed during the Vince McMahon, Sr. era and who held the promotion's first set of tag team titles (the NWA-CWC World Tag Team Championship) along Antonino Rocca, remaining the only tag team champions to stay undefeated during their entire run in the company.