10 Controversial WWE Releases
9. Abraham Washington, 2012
Abraham Washington’s WWE release came after not one but two controversial incidents during a two-week period in the summer of 2012.
The first of which arrived during the 30 July showing of Raw, when Washington quipped that Titus O’Neil was “like Kobe Bryant at a hotel in Colorado... he's unstoppable.” The remarks, an obvious reference to a 2003 legal case in which Bryant was accused of assaulting a 19-year-old hotel employee in Colorado, prompted widespread apologies from WWE, with the company noting that “appropriate action” had been taken.
Things then seemed to blow over before, a few days later, Washington made his second gaffe—Tweeting his support for Linda McMahon, who was running for a seat in the Senate at the time.
Wrestlers spouting their political views was apparently a no go, and Washington was released shortly thereafter.
WWE’s official stance was that Washington’s contract “was terminated because he continued to exhibit poor judgment by making offensive and inappropriate comments on live television and on social media,” though those “inappropriate comments” were nothing compared to the Twitter rant he went on following the actual release…