Thoughts on recent WWE releases?
By Marcola
@Marcola (2774)
United States
January 11, 2009 12:54pm CST
I was checking out www.pwinsider.com and they were reporting that a number of WWE employees were let go as a cost-cutting measure. Of the released that were wrestlers, they mentioned Bam Neely, Kevin Thorn, D-Lo Brown and Val Venis. There were some developmental wrestlers mentioned as well. Anyway, here are my thoughts for anyone who cares:
D-Lo Brown: Highly underutilized. Not really sure why they brought him back unless it was just to help with the younger talent. I wonder if he was happy with this last run. I wouldn't have minded him getting another run with the Intercontinental title. It would've been cool if they moved him to ECW to feud with his old Nation of Domination friend Mark Henry.
Val Venis: Also was extremely underutilized. I can't remember the last time he regularly appeared on TV.
Bam Neely: I kind of liked him and I think a feud with him and Chavo Guerrero would've been interesting. They were teasing dissension between them for a short time.
Kevin Thorn: Well, he was off TV and in developmental for such a long time, I guess it's not a huge shock. I guess a feud between him and Boogeyman might have been interesting.
3 responses
@satishmania (251)
• India
18 Jan 09
Hardcore Holly and Ron Simmons have been released as well. Ron was too old anyway and Holly had not been on a WWE show for a while.
@Marcola (2774)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I think Ron Simmons had a legend type deal. Kind of like Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who still wrestles on Raw occassionally. Hardcore Holly wasn't a surprise. He was getting up there in age, was having more injuries and supposedly one of the reasons he was taken off tv was for all that hazing he did to younger guys. The biggest surprise to me was Sgt. Slaughter getting released because I thought he and Vince were pretty close.
@Marcola (2774)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Well, Slaughter was an agent, I guess. He made the occasional tv appearance. When you think about how long he's been with them, it makes it seem even more surprising. As for Ron Simmons "Damn" Gimmick, it was funny at first, but it got a little played out when he did it every week. It got reactions from the crowds, though. I think my favorite "Damn" moment was when Ron yelled "Damn" at Kevin Federline over a phone that was on speaker.
@satishmania (251)
• India
18 Jan 09
Ya and as of late Ron was mainly there for his "DAMN" gimmick. Hmmm i guess Slaughter is a big loss.
@allen0187 (58444)
• Philippines
13 Jan 09
read about this one as well. the company is down-sizing and a lot of employees were released. as for those released wrestlers, i hope that they sign up with tna ans they get a good push there. i agree about yoru thoughts on neely and val venis. neely is a nother big wrestler that wwe could have had used in ecw. the roster in that brand is so thin!!! val venis is a good wrestler. he has personality and good in-ring skills. it'll be difficult to imagine him wrestling at tna as a main draw but who knows? one thing i would love to see though is a feud between val venis and gold dust. wasn't val venis' character the one who pushed dustin rhodes to take up the gold dust identity? i remember seeing that when i was younger.
@Marcola (2774)
• United States
14 Jan 09
Yeah, Dustin Rhodes/Runnels had a really religious gimmick at that time. He'd be in the arenas with a sign saying "He's coming back." Everyone thought he was talking about God. Val Venis kept on antagonizing him and shot a film called "The Preacher's Wife" starring Terri Runnels. (She actually was married to Dustin at one point.) They had two PPV matches in the Fall of '98, IIRC. One of those was Dustin wrestling as himself, the other as Goldust.
@allen0187 (58444)
• Philippines
15 Jan 09
ok, thanks for the info. i do remember seeing a clip with venis and a woman in bed being shown while dustin was all tied up in the ropes. that was some crazy stuff back in wwe. i doubt if they'll have a similar storyline nowadays.
@jonnyspirit (66)
• Puerto Rico
12 Jan 09
the wrestling entertainment have always been unpredictable. In the past war between wwf and wcw we saw that the wrestlers changed between companies. this is because the wrestler luck is based on the Booker. If the Booker think that this wrestler would be in a feud that are going to make money they put him in, but if he don't they start to use him only to dark matches until they fire him.
