10 Most Controversial WWE Firings Ever
6. Brad Maddox
We all have pro-wrestling-related hills that we are willing to die on, and one of mine is that Brad Maddox was criminally underrated and underused. Released in late 2015, Maddox was barely used in a competitive fashion, spending his main roster tenure as a referee and then as RAW General Manager.
Maddox was released out of the blue in November 2015, after saying something at a live event that rubbed Vince McMahon up the wrong way. Yeah, that really is all there was to it.
Maddox took on R-Truth in a live event dark match that month, and bad guy Maddox cut a promo on the crowd before the bell. This is pretty customary in the live event world, as the irritating heel riles up the crowd early on, ensuring everyone gets behind the babyface coming out to beat him. Nothing to see here, move along.
The problem was that Maddox called the crowd 'cocky pricks', and this didn't sit well with Vince McMahon. Yes, Vince McMahon, a man who once said the N word on television, took exception to Brad Maddox using the word 'pricks'. Maddox was immediately released, never to be seen in WWE again.