10 Unfortunately-Timed WWE Releases
Let's just be thankful that nobody's been fired on Christmas day... yet.
You could argue there’s never a particularly good time to be released from your contract. Unless your name is Cody Rhodes, that is.
Having been saddled with the Stardust gimmick for 11 months – a persona he’d been desperate to do away with – Rhodes was able to negotiate an early release from his WWE deal before going on to headline Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling shows and become one of the hottest commodities on the independent circuit.
But while there was nothing unfortunate about the timing of Rhodes’ release, he’s proved to be something of an exception to the rule. More often than not, guys and girls have seen their WWE departures come at rather more inopportune moments, while they’ve also – unlike in Rhodes' case – invariably been involuntary decisions.
From the careless to the calculated, here are ten select examples of WWE releases that could be described as unfortunately-timed, with some instances being unfortunate in the sense that they were unlucky on the part of those being released, and others in the sense that they were simply inappropriate on the part of the company itself...
10. Brad Maddox - 2015
In November 2015, during a dark segment ahead of a Main Event taping, Brad Maddox referred to an Indianapolis crowd as "pricks" during a pre-match promo. Apparently, Maddox thought the term was perfectly acceptable. Vince McMahon, on the other hand, did not.
Within 24 hours of uttering the word, it was announced that the company had released Maddox, with he himself later confirming that his slip of the tongue was indeed the reason behind his impromptu departure.
At face value, that may sound harsh, given that the incident took place during an untelevised segment, but the harshest part of the whole ordeal was the timing of it all.
With the Main Event taping taking place on Tuesday, Nov 24, Maddox’s firing arrived on Wednesday, Nov 25 – or in other words, the day before Thanksgiving.
Probably not the easiest thing in the world to enjoy a holiday based on being thankful after you’ve just been told you’re out of a job…