The Annual WWE Mass Firings Thread

[Downhome 0]

Had CW been around about 30 years ago or so, he would've been one of the major players in the industry. The guy is terribly underrated by the mainstream.

[razazteca 0]

When CW Anderson was in the original ECW he literally carried the whatever stable they thrown him into be it the one with the fake Paul E. and the lame fat Elvis or at the end when he was working with the HBK wanna be. If they didn't want to let CW wrestle due to him not being a roided freak they could at least kept him around as a manager, the man has mic skills and near perfect heel persona. They already have the Ric Flair parody in Armando Alejandro Estrada ha ha why not have CW continue the Anderson gimmick? Hell they probably could of put him at the announcer booth giving the wrestler perspective on the matches.

[dubq 0]

Of course maybe he wants to actually wrestle....

[dubq 0]

Scorpio was last seen doing the house show tour about a month ago in cruiserweight(!) matches.

 

Re: the post earlier about money spent on contracts, etc...Heidenreich said something in his shoot about how guys will get fired, only to get rehired not much later, so that WWE can take them at a lower price. He said he had talked to another former WWE star at an indie show (I'm led to believe he's referring to Albert) and that talent mentioned how he was approached with a smaller deal not long after he was let go (although Albert's doing well for himself in Japan).

 

Definitely. Albert's getting the monster gaijin (Scott Norton) push in Japan and he's probably going to end up making shit loads more cash in the long run.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, as far as the OVW guys go I can see Reeves being released but why not his equally useless tag partner John Bolin? Maybe he's not under a development deal, I dunno. Jack Bull was a silly comedy wrestler but did provide some amusement. Still, he's no great loss. I do not understand releasing Seth Skyfire however. The guy was a talented cruiserweight and I figured for a long time he'd end up on SD facing Gregory Helms. Of course maybe being a talented cruiser is why he got released.

[Downhome 0]

Brent Albright has already done an interview after his WWE release:

 

http://www.audiowrestling.com/1_main.htm

 

http://www.mondaynightmayhem.com/

 

From PWInsider:

 

Former WWE superstar & OVW World Heavyweight Champion, Brent "Gunner Scott" Albright, was one of the special guests on this past week's edition (1/15/07) of Monday Night Mayhem (w/The Big Mosh & Blade), which can be heard in streaming audio every week (and live at 9PM ET/8PM CT every Monday night) exclusively on The Monday Night Mayhem Radio Network (www.MondayNightMayhem.com, www.ObsessedWithWrestling.com, www.AllWNYRadio.com, & www.AudioWrestling.com -- your official home of "The Spring Break Incident" Video-On-Demand, featuring former WWE Diva, Stacy Keibler).

 

Brent's first interview since being released from the WWE is now available to hear for FREE in Real Audio!

 

Here are some of the highlights from the interview conducted by The Big Mosh & Blade (courtesy: Mayhem listener, PWUSandman41):

 

=============================================================

 

Blade & Mosh welcomed Brent to the program for his first public comments since parting ways with World Wrestling Entertainment. The Mayhem Crew asked Brent why he feels he was sent back down to Ohio Valley Wrestling, as well as being released a short time thereafter. Albright said that the office told him he was not getting over with the audience, and they wanted him to go back to OVW, change it up slightly, & to try and get himself over there. Brent strongly believes that he was over in OVW, but then he fell victim to the politics. The WWE told him he was going to be Chris Benoit’s "protégé," so he wrestled like Benoit and acted just like him, & the WWE did not like it. He said the the "E didn’t have a direction for him after Benoit was injured and taken out of action for a while, hence what happened in the long run.

 

Mosh then asked Brent about the Creative Team "not having anything for him" (the infamous expression), and having certain people who have never stepped foot in a ring trying to say that “they know Brent Albright better than Brent Albright." Brent said that you could have a lot of talent, but they legitimately might not have anything for them. He then said that creative might have the talent wait for a while, and then find something for them/turn it into a storyline, but releasing someone is frustrating. "How could they have something for you if your not with the company?"

 

Blade & Mosh asked Albright about CM Punk losing his undefeated streak in the WWE/ECW, with the rumors circulating about Arn Anderson's/Finlay's comments as to why he landed up losing to Hardcore Holly last week. In addition, Brent was asked about Punk, working with him in OVW, and if this is the beginning of a downward spiral (based on what CM has been going through in his first defeat). Brent said that the WWE could just be doing this to get the fans behind him even more, and "he hopes that it isn’t them screwing him over and making him into something bad."

 

Blade talked about how wrestlers on WWE TV always have about three-minute matches and then when they are on the indies they have good half-hour matches, he then asked Brent if he ever gets fans who saw him in WWE complement him after seeing him on the indies working in a different light. Brent said that he does and that the fans think most of the guys who wrestler short matches on WWE TV are not seen as good wrestlers, but when they are seen on the indies where they are allowed to do what they want people start to get into them more.

 

Mosh talks about WrestleMania weekend always happening and indy feds doing shows that weekend, and Brent was asked if he would like to see interaction from WWE & ROH guys. Brent says that he would not like it because WWE/Ring Of Honor are not the same styles. He then said that the ROH fans are more hardcore & loyal to ROH than to the WWE, that they would be disappointed, and considers Ring Of Honor selling out if they had WWE guys on their ROH shows that weekend.

 

Mosh then moved on to the ten minutes that was wasted in everyone’s life in the "Rosie vs Donald" match up on RAW and the announcers putting it over as a five-star classic. Mosh asked if he takes offense to the WWE for putting that on their programming, when they could have used that to push someone else. Brent said he was offended a little bit, but he does think the WWE took a risk, and then took a risk of legitimate heat that "Rosie & Trump" had. It then backfired, because it didn’t get over. He then said that the commentators only put it over because it was their job, and they were trying to put it over as much as they could.

 

Mosh elaborated on the TNA chants and signs that were on RAW for the past few weeks, and then asked if Brent has any consideration of going to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. What would he say to TNA if they were interested? Brent said that he has not been approached by them, and that he has sent an e-mail to them about going to the company. He went on to say that TNA replied with saying that they are not picking anyone up until they get a two-hour timeslot. Believe it ot not, Brent is a huge fan of one of TNA's newest acquisitions, Tomko. Albright believes that Tomko was signed to TNA because he can work, is a solid big man, and that he hopes that the company uses him the right way & shows everyone his talent.

 

Brent was asked what he thinks the WWE could improve on if he would be called back and he said that he wanted the angle with Chris Benoit to work out, and that even though they are not big on tag teams that he would have loved to be in a tag team to help get over a little more. He also said that he would have loved to work some matches with Booker T, and says that Booker is a phenomenal wrestler, and up until a few months ago Booker was the most underrated wrestler on SmackDown. Brent also mentioned that he would have liked to work with Mr. Kennedy, because they always hung out & worked out together. Brent continued on, saying that he would have also liked to work with Rey Mysterio & a lot of the veterans that are over to get some more experience of working in front of a crowd, so that he could get the feel of what the business really is about. On RAW, he said that he would love to work with a lot of the younger talent, such as Carlito.

 

Final comments on his time with OVW & World Wrestling Entertainment: Even though it didn’t end the way that he wanted, he does think that they dropped the ball with him. However, he cannot say anything bad about them whatsoever, because he lived his dream of working with the WWE.

 

More goodness is included in this 35+ minute interview with Brent including: his takes on whether or not Kenny Dykstra will succeed in hs singles run, where he sees the rest of The Spirit Squad members headed now, & the possibilities of a three-way shoot match against The Miz & Daniel Puder.

 

For more information & how to purchase tickets for the ROH Five-Year Anniversary Festival, where Brent will be appearing, head on over to www.ROHWrestling.com for more details. We also encourage all fans to check out Brent's official MySpace page at www.MySpace.com/BrentAlbright.

[spman 0]

Scorpio was last seen doing the house show tour about a month ago in cruiserweight(!) matches.

 

Re: the post earlier about money spent on contracts, etc...Heidenreich said something in his shoot about how guys will get fired, only to get rehired not much later, so that WWE can take them at a lower price. He said he had talked to another former WWE star at an indie show (I'm led to believe he's referring to Albert) and that talent mentioned how he was approached with a smaller deal not long after he was let go (although Albert's doing well for himself in Japan).

 

Speaking of Heidenreich, I had read in a recent Observer that he dropped the belt he had in one of the feds in Puerto Rico, sicne he was leaving the territory. I assumed this was Meltzer-Speak for him possibly or probably showing up in WWE again. I certainly wouldn't doubt it, he had no talent at all, but he was big and had somewhat of a unique look.

[uhftv 0]

the Albright story is one of the strangest shit things I've ever heard.

 

He was given this shooter gimmick in ovw when Paul Heyman was booking.

Then they brought him to Smackdown to do a Benoit protege gimmick.

THen he got badmouthed by Malenko and Arn that he was wrestling too much like Benoit.THAT doesnt make any sense at all so they sent him back. and nothing ever mentioned what Benoit had to say.

 

So they release him because of not connecting with the audience. Like anyone does who just shows up on the show and wrestles without Nathan Jones-like video packages is supposed to get a standing ovation for a 3 minute match where you're only allowed to wrestle like everyone else.

Storyline miscommunication aside, he got fired because he still wrestled TOO MUCH LIKE Benoit. His offense was too smooth and goodlooking!! Fire him, quick.

 

Im thinking that Arn didnt like CW using the Anderson gimmick including copying his male pattern baldness. So that would explain why he got canned.

 

I hadnt heard anything about Tatanka or Knox being cut, that'd be less stuff to fastforward.

 

On ECW: what are they going to do, start pinning themselves for a whole hour? The worst indy promotions must have a bigger budget than they do now.

[k thx 0]

The shooter stuff was pre-Heyman.

 

I can't speak about his style before Heyman took over, as that's when I got into OVW, but he was working very much like Benoit (although not as a clone). It doesn't surprise me that when Benoit took off, the writing staff didn't have anything else for him. Considering the previous idea they had for him was a biker (along with Punk and Hemme IIRC), anything else they did would probably have been a disaster (although that team would have been amazing).

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah, Albright was using a lot of Benoit's arsenal in matches down in OVW. In fact I was surprised they did that with him since all it did was invite comparisons to Benoit. His heel run was fun in OVW though, where he would beat CM Punk with his grandpa's strap.

[Zack Malibu 0]

Seth Skyfire is one guy I truly hope winds up in TNA. He was the one of the best workers in OVW period, and did everything he could to get noticed (including going through the semi-mandatory haircut and makeover) and never got close.

[Matt Young 0]

the Albright story is one of the strangest shit things I've ever heard.

 

He was given this shooter gimmick in ovw when Paul Heyman was booking.

Then they brought him to Smackdown to do a Benoit protege gimmick.

THen he got badmouthed by Malenko and Arn that he was wrestling too much like Benoit.THAT doesnt make any sense at all so they sent him back. and nothing ever mentioned what Benoit had to say.

 

So they release him because of not connecting with the audience. Like anyone does who just shows up on the show and wrestles without Nathan Jones-like video packages is supposed to get a standing ovation for a 3 minute match where you're only allowed to wrestle like everyone else.

Storyline miscommunication aside, he got fired because he still wrestled TOO MUCH LIKE Benoit. His offense was too smooth and goodlooking!! Fire him, quick.

 

Im thinking that Arn didnt like CW using the Anderson gimmick including copying his male pattern baldness. So that would explain why he got canned.

 

I hadnt heard anything about Tatanka or Knox being cut, that'd be less stuff to fastforward.

 

On ECW: what are they going to do, start pinning themselves for a whole hour? The worst indy promotions must have a bigger budget than they do now.

 

Unless I missed something, Knox wasn't cut...

 

I mark for Mike Knox.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

The uncertainty with Knox is that there is a story floating around cyberspace that Tatanka and Knox were included on the wwe.com initial list (Bashams, Terkay etc) however they only appeared for about fifteen minutes before being removed. It was believed that their names were taken down because they had yet to be contacted. True enough Tatanka was added to the fired list the next day. The jury is still out on the fate of Mike Knox, however I don't think it bodes well as Knox was a Heyman guy, picked out of the developmentals specifically by Heyman, and unlike Punk, Heyman even couldn't do anything with him. Knox was clowned by HHH and HBK for even being included in their SS match, as HBK didn't even know who Knox was.

 

Bill Demott was fired as well according to wwe.com. I wonder what this does to Deep South Wrestling as a developmental territory. I wonder if they'll just shut it down and move the contracted developmentals to OVW(or at least the dozen they might want to keep), and then transfer some of OVW top talent to ECW like has been rumored as well.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

DSW's High Impact team of Tony Santorelli, Mike Taylor and wife Tracy Taylor have been released as has Thomas Farrea who I assume is Tommy Suede/Suede...

[Enigma 0]

WWE RELEASES 9 MORE

 

Some people noticed around 6:30pm EST on WWE.Com that Tatanka & Mike Knox were listed as the part of the released, then suddenly removed. Tatanka was added back on to the page Friday and remained, officially signifying his release. After appearing for a one-night-only deal when the company asked him to appear for Eugene's Hometown Hero Invitational in August 2005, despite being somewhat out of shape, Tatanka made a good impression on everyone backstage with his work. He was signed to a contract and given 4 months to get back in shape. He began working Raw house shows in December 2005, made his full-time return during the 2006 Royal Rumble, and was assigned to Smackdown. He was working as a heel and feuding with Jimmy Wang Yang at the time of his release.

 

Knox could be next, but has not been announced officially yet. Nobody in WWE likes him due to his association with Paul Heyman, and is referred to only as "Heyman's boy".

 

Bill DeMott, the head trainer for the Deep South Wrestling developmental group in McDonough, GA, has been released as well. DeMott made his debut in the United States in 1995 with WCW, under the name "Hugh Morrus". After being a career low-carder, he was finally pushed in 2000 under the booking of Vince Russo as "General Hugh G. Rection," the leader of the Misfits in Action, a group of wrestlers who got together because of their feelings of being held back in WCW. Under the General Rection moniker, he won the WCW United States Championship twice and recieved a built-up title match against WCW Champion Scott Steiner on Nitro. He was one of the 24 contracts picked up by WWE when they purchased WCW. After the brand extension, he was assigned to Smackdown and was planned to be used in a tag team with Perry Saturn in an Eliminators-type team. Saturn went down with injuries and was fired from the company for refusing to go on a WWA tour. He was a trainer on MTV's Tough Enough 3, along with Al Snow & Ivory. After TE3, WWE attempted an entire gimmick overhaul, giving him an unstoppable beast gimmick and having him go by his real name. A feud with WWE Champion Brock Lesnar was in the plans until DeMott seriously injured his back, and eventually retired. He became a commentator for Velocity, before being assigned as head trainer for Deep South Wrestling.

 

7 talents were released from their WWE developmental deals on Friday as well.

 

Seth Skyfire, Jack Bull, and Ryan Reeves were released from OVW. In Deep South, Micah Taylor, Tracy Taylor, Tony Santarelli, and Tommy Suede got the axe.

[Chazz 0]

Wow, I didn't even know DeMott was still with The Company. I thought he was released a long time ago.

[Jericholic82 0]

So they push how much Tatanka has changed and become a dangerous force....only to fire him after the taping.

They promote how Terkay is a deadly foe and with him teamed with Burke, they could be an unstoppable combo...only to fire him after the taping.

 

I'm sure on some planet, this is uncanny logic. The only flaw is that we're on Earth.

yea lots of sense there. I wonder how m uch money the diva search losers are being paid? its a shame that these guys get canned and yet they still employ the french girl to do bumpers on sd and set off JBL on a tangent

[Vern Gagne 0]

According to WWE.Com Dr. Tom Pritchard is taking over Deep South.

[uhftv 0]

Man all these cuts, I hope it's worth it to run another divasearch

 

and to cover Vince's yearly bonus.

 

 

and his separate pay as a performer. Can't live without that. You know life on the road is tough. All that maintenance for the private jet and all.

 

 

 

The one that annoys me is Doug Basham. His whole ordeal about quitting wrestling to work fulltime at Ford because it would be more money plus benefits that wrestlers dont have (you know like health insurance, cause wrestlers get hurt) so he would turn down developmental deals. He finally takes a deal for some strange reason and they take all of 30 seconds to come up with something for him ( I think someone saw him in the hall and said he looked like Damaja so they made them a brother tagteam, hooray) and gave them nothing to do year after year. He was a great worker too and not that small. Same with Damaja/Danny Basham. Maybe they jus put a big dart board and picked names like that.

 

Most of the people are developmental guys and others, besides Al Snow, are guys they picked up after 2001 when they were the only company left. So maybe there's a loyalty thing there with guys who they would not normally hire, and guys like Skyfire who are too small theyd just sit around backstage at Smackdown like all the other cruiserweights, if there are any left. But there are guys who have been there for years and never amount to anything and they always stick around. You always hear about guys getting dropped as a cutting-costs measure, so maybe there are guys that are always taking the paycuts and keeping their mouths shut like Holly so they have no problems in the company.

I dont know what the reason could be, as 2006 was a pretty bad year, but ratings pretty much stayed up, like they do year after crappy year, and they even raised the price of ppvs recently, so you can pay 40 bucks each for 30 ppvs a year for average, underdeveloped matches.

And this whole split thing makes it look like they barely have enough guys, except for Raw which seems overloaded with guys they dont use; it's possible they just decided there were no more spots left for any of the shows.

 

Or maybe Vince liked that segment with Rob Conway toooo much.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Wait, I thought Developmental deals consisted of YOU paying them? But I take it there's a certain point where that stops..?

 

(Looking at the sign up and stuff for OVW through the site, there's a lot you have to pay for of course, so I do'nt know if that meant developmental deals, or just the entry stuff)

[Bruce Blank 0]

Deveopmental deals means you get paid to learn/improve/tweak your style to fit the WWE style.

 

Not everyone in the OVW have a WWE developental deal - some are actual students who pay for themselves to learn to wrestle, they can't be released since they're not under any kind of contract but just "attend school" if you will.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

From what I've read a developmental deal pays $750/week or roughly $35,000/year. The low-lwvel wwe contracts are something like $75,000 plus a gate share and merchandising(if you have any).

[Alro 0]

Apparently just before the mass firings began, Eddie Craven was released from OVW. He was released just after he won the OVW TV Title, which is being shared with his now former stable Bad Kompany via the Freebird rule. I don't know if he had a development deal or not. He is still mentioned when Bad Kompany is interviewed, but they are now acting like the don't know who Craven is.