When WWE fired Arn Anderson in late February, there wasn’t too much information on what led to their decision. However, a chunk of the real story just hit the internet.
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According to Wrestling Inc. Anderson was let go for letting Alicia Fox perform intoxicated. The story goes that Fox showed up to a WWE Live Event under the influence, and Anderson—who was in charge of her match—knew about it yet let her wrestle anyway. Vince McMahon was reportedly irate upon learning of the situation and the decision to fire Anderson was made quickly.
A few days after WWE released him, a report from the Wrestling Observer Radio suggested a singular incident, but never mentioned specifics. The Observer’s Dave Meltzer also noted that Anderson and Vince had a strained relationship, which makes the Fox incident look to be a final straw of sorts.
“Arn got fired. It’s an incident, everyone is pretty much keeping quiet on what it was. But it was an incident with Vince,” Meltzer said. “I know people who were siding with Arn, I know people who siding with Vince. I don’t know the whole details other than something at a house show evidently wasn’t handled well. And Arn took the blame for that.
“Arn and Vince were not really on the best of terms,” he continued. “There had been a lot of situations over the years, one particular one not too long ago.
Anderson was beloved by generations of WWE Superstars, an is regarded as one of the best wrestling minds in the business. Given his exceptional status as an agent, WWE firing him looked to be a bit of a head-scratching decision. But if Wreslting Inc.’s scoop is true, then Anderson’s mistake is hard to look past.
By allowing Fox to compete intoxicated, Anderson would have placed her and at least one other wrestler in danger. Fox herself is prone to a negative headline here and there, but given Anderson’s status as a decision maker, it’s him who was wrong.
Andersons’s firing seems to correlate with the hiring of Bruce Prichard who already been installed as a top-ranking creative official. How related the two instances are doesn’t really matter much because it sounds like Prichard has a slightly different role than what Anderson vacated.
