It's sobering to imagine now, but Gunner Scott was compared to Chris Benoit upon his main roster WWE debut in 2006. A lot of the reason for this fanfare was because the man was booked to defeat Booker T in his first televised match. The Boogeyman distracted Booker, but it was still treated like a major win nonetheless. Backstage, even Benoit acclaimed Scott's victory. Afterwards, Gunner could be seen teaming with Benoit on house shows and television. It really seemed that WWE higher-ups were digging what the man had to offer, but that wouldn't last all that long. Reports started to surface online that various agents behind the scenes felt he was simply trying to be Chris Benoit a little too much, which is exactly what those same people had asked him to do. By June, Scott was taken off the main roster and sent back to development. He was later released in October, 2006, and a lot of fans pointed fingers of blame at WWE for the way they treated him. Quite how someone could go from being discussed as a potential star to being discarded so quickly was baffling. This shows that WWE were throwing things at the wall to see what might stick.