Road Dogg Comments on His WWE Release

WWE had its first wave of releases for 2022 on Wednesday, letting go of a number of wrestlers and staff members working for NXT and the WWE Performance Center. Among them was WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg (real name Brian James), who in recent years had transitioned from being a head writer on WWE’s main roster to the Black and Gold Brand, helping with coaching and creative. 

“Guys, I’m doing well and I thank you for all the love. I’m gonna take a few days for my self and process this. God is still on the throne and will provide. It’s just business!” James wrote. 

James made headlines last year when he was rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. He returned to work roughly a month later.

WWE released a statement regarding its decision to cut ties with the PC employees, writing, “With the continued evolution of NXT 2.0, we’ve decided to part ways with some of the staff based in our Performance Center. We thank them for their many contributions throughout the years and wish them the best.

However, it wasn’t long before reports of why these cuts happened started making the rounds. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful had a number of sources stating the firings were deliberately targeted at people either close to or hired by Triple H in order to overhaul the direction of developmental. That included James, who was seen as a “Triple H guy”

“The Game” suffered a cardiac event back in September, right around the time WWE gave an onscreen reboot to NXT as NXT 2.0. Triple H addressed the changes weeks prior during SummerSlam weekend. 

“It’s a funny thing, people talk about shifting. It never really shifted,” he said. “So if you go back and look at the hiring process, (it’s) not the hiring process of a television show, it’s a hiring process of who we’re looking to train and make WWE Superstars. Long term. If you go back and look at it, it hasn’t shifted. It’s been the same process. I don’t negate anybody from a standpoint of, ‘I wrestled some independent stuff,’ ‘Well all right, you’re out!’ That’s not a factor to me, but it’s also not the factor that makes me go, ‘Okay, you’re in.’ When they get in here today, if somebody goes in and hits the ropes perfectly every time, has every roll perfect, does all the stuff, makes it look easy because they’ve been training, that’s not really showing me anything. You should be able to, if you’ve been training, if you’ve been working indies you should be able to do all of that.

“To me, what is the potential long-term? What is that potential? And are they willing to do the work to live up to that potential. Vince used to always say, ‘We’re a variety show’ — we are. In some manner, you need a little bit of everything,” he continued. “That’s the key to all of this. But people hear one statement and then make one (assumption). ‘Now it’s that. No, now it’s this.’ It always has been.”