On April 15, 2021, WWE, in its eternal quest to be crowned ‘most publicly beloved super nice company in the world best friend’ laid off a raft of both on and offscreen employees in their new WrestleMania week tradition of corporate spring cleaning, shortly before posting substantial profits.
A PR juggernaut indeed. There have been many whacky high profile wrestler firings in the past, often based on incidents that didn’t happen in the ring – Sid Vicious going on scissor-wielding rampage in a Blackburn hotel, Mr. Perfect for almost causing a goddamn plane crash on the infamous plane ride from hell, and Highlander Robbie for going to watch some TNA the worst offense someone could commit.
But all this got us thinking, are there 10 wrestlers who got themselves fired because of an actual match itself? Oh boy yes there are.
We actually found 11 but we won’t go into detail on the Koji Kitao incident, because we already did in our 10 Wrestlers Who Tried to Injure Their Opponents list, go watch that if you want to know more.
10. Bryan Clark – Unforgiven 2001
Well, this seems a bit unfair. So it’s 2001 and WWE is slap back in the middle of the Invasion angle, which if I remember correctly, everyone really liked.
As a favor to Big Evil Big Kinevil WWE brought in former two-time WCW tag champs KroniK, aka the Two Brians, Bryan Clark and Brian Adams, a friend of Undertaker from back when he was Crush, who better than Crush.
Oh turns out loads, because when KroniK fought the Brothers of Destruction in their first pay per view match at Unforgiven 2001, the match suuuucked.
A plodding boring mess with none of the teams even slightly gelling in the ring, the backstage reaction to the match was so strong that KroniK was told they were being demoted to developmental, with Clark reacting so poorly to that he was immediately let go, which is a little harsh because if you fired everyone who had a bad match in 2001 then the WWF would probably just consist of Kurt Angle and a whole bunch of mirrors.
8. The Ultimate Warrior – SummerSlam 1991
Oh brother. SummerSlam 91 was partly promoted on a match made in hell, Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa, and General Adnan and OH BOY WAS IT, less so for the kayfabe reasons and more the colossal shit-storm that happened backstage surrounding the main event of the second biggest show of the year.
Ultimate Warrior believed that WWE at the time owed him somewhere in the ballpark of half a million dollars because of the perceived pay disparity between himself and Hogan.
If Vince didn’t stump up the cash, Warrior threatened to no-show SummerSlam, despite half of the advertising centering around his match.
Well nobody puts Vince in a corner, and despite bowing to the Warrior’s demands, as soon as the world’s craziest jogger rushed backstage, running off Adnan and Mustafa with a chair he was met with a pink slip and told to get the hell out of the company, not even returning for the post-match celebration with Hogan.
7. Brad Maddox – Dark Match (November 24, 2015)
For a number of reasons, Brad Maddox is true Rated-R superstar.
Despite looking like an amalgamation of all three chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore, turns out Mr. Maddox has QUITE the potty mouth on him, one that saw him removed from the company in what would turn out to be one of WWE’s more hypocritical firings.
On the fateful night November 24, 2015, Maddox wrestled a dark match against R-Truth shortly before a scheduled taping of Main Event in Indianapolis. As anyone who’s been to Indianapolis would understand, during the dark segment, Maddox called the crowd ‘cocky pricks’.
Maddox had not been cleared to use such language, and Vince was in attendance, releasing Brad shortly after.
Like, ok WWE’s a family show, but the firing’s made all the more harsh when a mere three months later, on the February 22 episode of Raw, Vince told Shane he would get a quotes ‘f**king beating’ ON ACTUAL LIVE TELEVISION.
It’s unclear if Vince was fired for that blunder, but reports aren’t looking good.
6. Eugene
Oh Eugene, back for more I see. Look, despite my public very-much-dislike for the whole Eugene gimmick, it’s never a good day when a wrestler is fired especially when the firing is as openly cruel as this one.
Back in 2009, Raw was really, REALLY bad, so WWE decided to turn the ship around by resigning Eugene to a contract, that’ll do it.
Eugene’s first and only televised match back was on August 10th, in a contract on a pole match against The Miz who was wearing a mask and calling himself the Calgary Kid for reasons I just can’t be bothered to get into.
Evidently, Eugene wasn’t in the best shape as the man who played him, Nick Dinsmore would explain in a later interview. He got backstage after his match with the Calgary Miz and was told, and I’m quoting Dinsmore here, “We’re not selling fat, old, Eugene, you’re fired”.
Harsh, that. Fun fact, the promo after this match was the first time Miz a) wrestled in teeny underwear rather than long pants and b) said “I’m The Miz and I’m awesome.”
6. Arn Anderson – WWE House Show (February 10, 2019)
And now, somewhat of a rarity, a match that managed to get someone fired, but weirdly, none of the wrestlers who actually wrestled in it.
Arn Anderson, former Four Horseman superveteran, was working as a producer for WWE in early 2019. It was February 10, at a WWE house show in Saginaw, Michigan, and one of the matches on the card was a six-women tag featuring Bayley, Dana Brooke and Natalya going over Mickie James, Nikki Cross and Alicia Fox.
On the fateful night in question, Fox reportedly turned up to work intoxicated. As you probably know, wrestling is f**king dangerous even when everyone is stone cold sober, so this it was rightfully seen as an egregious dereliction of duty when Arn Anderson let her go out and compete regardless.
Fox was benched for two months after the incident, but Anderson himself was fired, and would appear in AEW six months later.
6. Dustin Rhodes & Blacktop Bully – UnCensored 1995
Turns out high-profile departures from major wrestling promotions are something of a Rhodes family tradition.
Cody’s break with WWE is one of the most significant releases of the generation, Dusty Rhodes was famously fired from newly christened WCW after he booked a segment where the Road Warriors opened him up with a spike, breaking a rule laid down by the company’s new boss Turner Broadcasting to not allow blood.
Dustin Rhodes would prove to be his father’s son seven years later when WCW fired him for the exact same thing. It was Uncensored 1995, just a terrible year for American wrestling all over, Jesus Hulkamania Christ.
The show opened with a King of the Road match, which saw Blacktop Bully A.K.A. Demolition Smash A.K.A. Repo Man fight Dustin Rhodes in a cage filled with hay on the back of a moving truck, in what would happen if Mad Max Fury Road had been directed by Sergio Leone, if he’d just suffered a major stroke.
If the potential for motion sickness and hayfever wasn’t bad enough, the very very boring match also saw both men blading, again breaking WCW’s no-blood rule, which saw both men fired from the company.
5. Jeff Jarrett – No Mercy 1999
Vince McMahon never forgets. Another weird situation that saw a wrestler get fired from WWE, a whole two years after a match that rustled Vince’s jimmies.
No Mercy 1999 saw the payoff to a cunning little scheme engineer by Jeff Jarrett and his buddy Vince Russo. Both men were departing WWE and headed for WCW where they would try and save the ailing company but shooting it straight through the brain.
Jarrett was Intercontinental Champion in mid 1999, and was in a feud with Chyna. Russo convinced WWE to blow off the feud at No Mercy, then promptly left the company, only for WWE to then discover that Jarrett the champ would be out of contract at the time of the pay-per-view.
Under no legal obligation to perform, Jarrett told Vince, either pay me $300,000 or I no-show and take the belt to WCW.
Like Ultimate Warrior before him, Jeff got paid his ransom money, before being gleefully fired on live TV two years later after Vince bought WCW.
Like Warrior both men are now in the WWE Hall of Fame because WWE history is just one long reality show of people fighting, crying, making up, fighting, crying and fighting.
3. Buff Bagwell – Raw (July 2, 2001)
He may wear a hat better than anyone this side of the Teletubbies, but Buff Bagwell’s career in WWE was as accomplished as it was long. It was very short.
Like most of the WCW stars who voluntarily waved goodbye to free money to try and start the invasion off right, WWE repaid Buff’s kindness with custard pies to the face and genitals.
On a now-infamous episode of Raw in Tacoma on July 2, 2001, WWE attempted to launch WCW as its own separate brand, with a its own pyro, its own announce team of Arn Anderson and Scott Hudson and a main event of Buff Bagwell challenging Booker T for the WCW Championship.
Fans immediately s**t on the concept of the match, pelting it with boos and chants of this match sucks.
The backstage reaction to the match was so sour that the concept of a separate WCW was immediately canceled, and Buff was gone from the company within the week, WWE executing his career like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Your name is Buff, right? And you are the stuff… right? Kablam.
2. Teddy Hart – ROH Main Event Spectacles 2003
Teddy Hart is the nephew of Bret Hart, a cat breeder, a talented wrestler, and also one of the most blacklisted men in professional wrestling, with most agreeing that his potential will never be realized after constant legal troubles and managing to burn bridges with promotions including WWE, TNA, Ring of Honor, AAA, MLW and more over the last 20 years.
His issues with Ring Of Honor were the most dramatic with his incredibly public blackballing from the company stemming from a now-infamous match in 2003.
On November 1, Ring of Honor held a show called Main Event Spectacles, which saw a scramble cage match featuring amongst other teams, the Next Generation Hart Foundation, Jack Evans and Teddy Hart.
After the planned match was over, Teddy Hart suddenly stopped selling, and began doing moonsaults and shooting star presses from the top of the cage before vomiting in the ring.
Doing unplanned high spots is an INCREDIBLY dangerous thing to do both to yourself and the people who, you know, haven’t been told you’re about to land on them, and the locker room was so outraged that Hart was physically thrown out of the building.
1. Mrrrrrrrrr. Kennedy……. Kennedy – Raw (May 25, 2009)
Poor Mr. Kennedy Kennedy, bloody hell. He had a fairly cursed run in WWE, constantly having big plans curtailed by terrible luck.
After an initial undefeated streak, he was sidelined for six months with an injury, he came back and won Money in the Bank at ‘Mania 23, but lost the briefcase after what appeared to be another injury, that was actually much less serious than expected, too late Edge has already cashed it in.
Later in 2007, he was scheduled to be part of the huge Mr. McMahon’s illegitimate son angle but that changed when he was suspended for violating the wellness policy.
After yet another injury the year later, Mr. Kennedy returned to in-ring action in May 2009 wrestling one match, that match would get him fired.
A 10-man tag match featuring good boys wearing Lakers jerseys and bad guys wearing Nuggets jerseys, I’m reliably informed it’s something to do with basketball. Cool.
During the match, Kennedy gave Orton a back suplex, which saw Randy land on his neck and shoulder rather than his back. You can see Randy’s angry as soon as he lands.
Incensed because he had a history of shoulder injuries and was WWE champ at the time, Orton persuaded Cena to complain about Kennedy’s recklessness to Vince who agreed to have him released and sent packing…. Kennedy.
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