Post by Woo on Aug 13, 2008 19:53:46 GMT -1
For those of you who don't know the WWE cut 7 of their wrestlers on Friday, these being Chris Harris, Nunzio, Big Vis, Domino, Shannon Moore Moore Moore, referee Nick Patrick and some guy called James Curtis. Here are the reasons.
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Lots of news coming out regarding the seven releases by WWE last Friday, with one being announced early on Thursday night involving Braden Walker (aka Chris Harris). Reports are that the company already had a lot of talent coming in and it isn't believed that any of the talent cut were going to do much for them in the future.
In regards the Braden Walker/Chris Harris release announced last Thursday, it was a rather quick release as he just made his TV debut in early July for ECW. His situation has been described as a guy who had a string of great matches in TNA and when he got to WWE, they were down on him and suddenly he didn't know how to work that style. The talk within WWE was that he went out there like a guy whose confidence was beaten out of him in his matches on ECW. Harris was said to have had a lot of heat on him to begin with in how he carried himself backstage, but no one can really pinpoint if he did one thing to cause that reaction among the wrestlers. One assumption is that he might have carried himself as if he had done something in the wrestling industry already in his time with TNA in the America's Most Wanted tag team with James Storm and in WWE, that is a big strike against you to have had some success elsewhere unless you come in and admit right away that what you did didn't count. The overwhelming opinion was that Harris didn't do well in his debut TV match with Armando Estrada on ECW and didn't come across well on his pre-tapes either.
It should be noted that a lot of people within TNA were described as being all smiles when hearing of Harris' release from WWE because many wrestlers have the idea in that leaving TNA for WWE that the "grass is greener on the other side", but that was not the case for a few stars who have made the jump (see Frankie Kazarian, although Monty Brown shouldn't really be used as an example since his family issues is what caused his eventual release).
As for the release of Big Daddy V, he was told some time ago to lose weight and apparently didn't do enough in his time off.
News on the release of James Curtis was rather quiet as he was in developmental for a long time and had a recent string of matches on ECW in a jobbing role. He wasn't well regarded among anyone besides Dusty Rhodes and with Rhodes no longer on the booking team, it pretty much killed his chances.
The release of Domino wasn't a huge shock to many after the Deuce and Domino tag team was broken up during the draft. He reportedly realized his limitations and might have been too forthcoming about them, especially when he was overheard saying that he knew Deuce would be the star of the tag team once they broke up. The funny thing about that now is since being traded to Raw, we haven't heard much from Deuce at tapings or on house shows.
Shannon Moore's release was made public a few hours before WWE officially announced it as Moore issued a statement on his official "MySpace" page. Moore was always described as a solid talent in the ring, but reportedly struggled in pre-tapes. The likely feeling was that the company had no real plans for him despite a re-debut in the early days of the new ECW on Sci Fi. Moore owns a tattoo shop in North Carolina that will be his primary business and is working with Bill Behrens to get booked on the indy scene. It should be noted that Moore is friends with Jeff Jarrett, which was how he got into TNA in the first place. However, the odds of him returning to TNA could be slim as on his way out of TNA in March 2006 he pinned AJ Styles on TV (a move that was second-guessed) and then got word to WWE that he was not working under contract with them and got a deal.
Not much to add on the release of Nunzio. He was described as a good worker, but they continued to bury him on the ECW brand and didn't have any major plans for him.
The release of referee Nick Patrick was interesting as he had been out of action undergoing back surgery and was expected to return soon. When he was gone, WWE hired several new referees. A few days after Patrick had underwent back surgery, he was in a car accident (he was reportedly rear ended) and suffered injuries and was back out of action again. The feeling is that WWE wanted younger guys in the referee role that weren't banged up. Patrick has been around wrestling for close to 30 years.
Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
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It's a shame about Chris Harris as he was great in the early days of TNA in AMW and had one of the greatest matches I have ever seen against Triple X's Chris Daniels and Elix Skipper (yeah, the one where Primetime walks the cage....seriously how did he do that?!) Then AMW split up and they had a good angle, which rebounded back from the worst match of 07 (the blindfold cage match) into what is imo the best- the brutal street fight between himself and Storm.
It looked like they were going to push him into a top babyface role as shown by his inclusion in the excellent King of the Mountain match alongside greats such as Joe, Styles, Cage and Angle. But then.....then things took a strange nose dive and he ended up fighting Career Killer Dustin Rhodes and was saddled with the entertaining gimmick of 'TNA's 2nd best babyface whining bitch behind Samoa Joe' and it all went to pot.
Hopefully he can regain some of his form, and for the love of god lose some weight, and have some more great matches wherever he goes next.
As for the rest I feel it's too bad for Moore and Nunzio as I found them to be very entertaining (watch the 04 Rumble to see Nunzio at his funniest) and it's a shame to see them unemployed, again for Moore... Big Vis getting sacked for the same reasons he got hired is unfair and is exactly what happened to Rikishi.
But poor Nick Patrick. 30 years in the business and ends up getting fired for having the sheer audacity to get injured....
-----------------------
Lots of news coming out regarding the seven releases by WWE last Friday, with one being announced early on Thursday night involving Braden Walker (aka Chris Harris). Reports are that the company already had a lot of talent coming in and it isn't believed that any of the talent cut were going to do much for them in the future.
In regards the Braden Walker/Chris Harris release announced last Thursday, it was a rather quick release as he just made his TV debut in early July for ECW. His situation has been described as a guy who had a string of great matches in TNA and when he got to WWE, they were down on him and suddenly he didn't know how to work that style. The talk within WWE was that he went out there like a guy whose confidence was beaten out of him in his matches on ECW. Harris was said to have had a lot of heat on him to begin with in how he carried himself backstage, but no one can really pinpoint if he did one thing to cause that reaction among the wrestlers. One assumption is that he might have carried himself as if he had done something in the wrestling industry already in his time with TNA in the America's Most Wanted tag team with James Storm and in WWE, that is a big strike against you to have had some success elsewhere unless you come in and admit right away that what you did didn't count. The overwhelming opinion was that Harris didn't do well in his debut TV match with Armando Estrada on ECW and didn't come across well on his pre-tapes either.
It should be noted that a lot of people within TNA were described as being all smiles when hearing of Harris' release from WWE because many wrestlers have the idea in that leaving TNA for WWE that the "grass is greener on the other side", but that was not the case for a few stars who have made the jump (see Frankie Kazarian, although Monty Brown shouldn't really be used as an example since his family issues is what caused his eventual release).
As for the release of Big Daddy V, he was told some time ago to lose weight and apparently didn't do enough in his time off.
News on the release of James Curtis was rather quiet as he was in developmental for a long time and had a recent string of matches on ECW in a jobbing role. He wasn't well regarded among anyone besides Dusty Rhodes and with Rhodes no longer on the booking team, it pretty much killed his chances.
The release of Domino wasn't a huge shock to many after the Deuce and Domino tag team was broken up during the draft. He reportedly realized his limitations and might have been too forthcoming about them, especially when he was overheard saying that he knew Deuce would be the star of the tag team once they broke up. The funny thing about that now is since being traded to Raw, we haven't heard much from Deuce at tapings or on house shows.
Shannon Moore's release was made public a few hours before WWE officially announced it as Moore issued a statement on his official "MySpace" page. Moore was always described as a solid talent in the ring, but reportedly struggled in pre-tapes. The likely feeling was that the company had no real plans for him despite a re-debut in the early days of the new ECW on Sci Fi. Moore owns a tattoo shop in North Carolina that will be his primary business and is working with Bill Behrens to get booked on the indy scene. It should be noted that Moore is friends with Jeff Jarrett, which was how he got into TNA in the first place. However, the odds of him returning to TNA could be slim as on his way out of TNA in March 2006 he pinned AJ Styles on TV (a move that was second-guessed) and then got word to WWE that he was not working under contract with them and got a deal.
Not much to add on the release of Nunzio. He was described as a good worker, but they continued to bury him on the ECW brand and didn't have any major plans for him.
The release of referee Nick Patrick was interesting as he had been out of action undergoing back surgery and was expected to return soon. When he was gone, WWE hired several new referees. A few days after Patrick had underwent back surgery, he was in a car accident (he was reportedly rear ended) and suffered injuries and was back out of action again. The feeling is that WWE wanted younger guys in the referee role that weren't banged up. Patrick has been around wrestling for close to 30 years.
Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
--------------------------------
It's a shame about Chris Harris as he was great in the early days of TNA in AMW and had one of the greatest matches I have ever seen against Triple X's Chris Daniels and Elix Skipper (yeah, the one where Primetime walks the cage....seriously how did he do that?!) Then AMW split up and they had a good angle, which rebounded back from the worst match of 07 (the blindfold cage match) into what is imo the best- the brutal street fight between himself and Storm.
It looked like they were going to push him into a top babyface role as shown by his inclusion in the excellent King of the Mountain match alongside greats such as Joe, Styles, Cage and Angle. But then.....then things took a strange nose dive and he ended up fighting Career Killer Dustin Rhodes and was saddled with the entertaining gimmick of 'TNA's 2nd best babyface whining bitch behind Samoa Joe' and it all went to pot.
Hopefully he can regain some of his form, and for the love of god lose some weight, and have some more great matches wherever he goes next.
As for the rest I feel it's too bad for Moore and Nunzio as I found them to be very entertaining (watch the 04 Rumble to see Nunzio at his funniest) and it's a shame to see them unemployed, again for Moore... Big Vis getting sacked for the same reasons he got hired is unfair and is exactly what happened to Rikishi.
But poor Nick Patrick. 30 years in the business and ends up getting fired for having the sheer audacity to get injured....
