With another year comes another round of WWE firings. As 2007 has just kicked off one may hardly expect the more than one dozen competitors let go this week to be the last the WWE comes to terms with on their releases before 2008.
Still while those with untapped potential such as Sylvester Terkay, CW Anderson and Jazz make their way towards the independent scene, TNA or paths outside of wrestling entirely, many other WWE employees retain their jobs. These superstars include many cornerstones of WWE’s post-Attitude Era such as Funaki, Stevie Richards and Steve Lombardi.
This beckons forth the question what is it that keeps a guy like Pat Patterson employed by the WWE while guys like Elix Skipper are released before they are even used? After all Patterson has been little more than non-existent in the ring for the past twenty years while Skipper helped cement the X Division in NWA:TNA, which has become one that companies main selling points.
To answer the question three longtime WWE employees will be analyzed along with the reasons of why they were kept. Though their careers may not always be the brightest in the wrestling industry, they have consistently cashed a paycheck from the largest American promotion there is for a decade or longer.”
Remember when Scotty Too Hotty got demolished last year on either Smackdown! or Velocity? No not the match with Orlando Jordan, the match with Mr. Kennedy. Come to think of it, it does not really matter, which program it was or who annihilated Scotty. The bottom line is that if one sees Scotty on WWE programming today, the chances are he is getting squashed.
This is nothing new for Scotty as if someone turned on an episode of Monday Night Raw back in 1993 it was not completely out of the question that Scotty was getting squashed then too. He may have been known as Scott Taylor then, but he was still looking up at the lights by the end of the match nearly every time. Here in lies the secret to Scotty’s success. After all there is a reason why every time either of the Hardy Boyz makes a mistake that earns them a pink slip they are sooner or later welcomed back with open arms.
Both Scotty and the Hardy Boyz began their mainstream wrestling careers in what was then the WWF. Before gaining championships and being heavily hyped, all three had been jobbed out to the superstars of wrestling for years. Because of this loyalty whatever screw ups wrestlers of this ilk make, they are more than likely to keep a job in the WWE as long as they are willing to job their asses off. Hence the reason Viscera is still employed by the WWE and Bret Hart is not.
There is more than one way to show loyalty however as aside from jobbing inside the ring wrestlers often job outside the ring in the form of accepting bad gimmicks. After all though Glen Jacobs eventually became the much celebrated Kane he first had to be an evil dentist, attempt to fill Kevin Nash’s boots and had other horrible gimmicks prior to the WWE.
Though Jacobs is certainly a good example of showing loyalty to keep a job there is another reason why he still works for the WWE, which is because he is massively over with fans. One individual, who is not quite so popular, but has still faced his share of bad gimmicks is Sean Morley, who first came to the then WWF as Val Venis.
Val Venis, a role, which claimed the wrestler was a porn star on the side, put Morley over wildly with audiences. However, if gimmicks can be too over than this one certainly was as after a while the gimmick seemed to drag and was in danger of becoming stale.
This is when Morley became a member of Right to Censor, which much like the current Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell affair was a poor attempt at satire. Aimed at the Parents Television Council, which was an outspoken critic of the then WWF, the group lumbered around for a while before uneventfully disbanding.
With RTC gone, Morley willingly accepted the role of Val Venis once more. However, the Attitude Era was over. With no more WCW left for the then WWF to compete with, the company had no reason to push the character in ways that would get the WWF in trouble with censors. This being the key to Venis’ character, Morley was pretty much left up a creek without a paddle.
Though for a brief time he acted as Eric Bischoff’s Chief of Staff, which may have had potential, the gimmick never really got off the ground. This subsequently led to Morley playing Venis for a third time now staler than ever.
Regardless Morley has proven to be willing to do whatever WWE’s creative team has for him and never phones in his effort. Despite working with an incredibly tired character, Morley typically puts his all into every performance.
As may be expected, not just lower or midcard wrestlers remain with the company for years. Former WWE heavyweight champions remain with the company too. Such is the case with Sgt. Slaughter. Though only considered a transitional champion, his reign was one of the lengthier runs among durations of this sort.
Knowing when to get out of the ring and not making a big stink about it may have been what has worked best for Slaughter. The same worked for both Gerald Brisco and the previously mentioned Pat Patterson. Though the three have often been called sycophants as well as likened to the Three Stooges, all three remain with good paying jobs and some backstage power. After all Patterson for example has often been credited for creating the Royal Rumble match as well as having a role in the Montreal Screwjob.
Today Slaughter works mostly behind the scenes, along the lines of the WWE administrative team. Still, he makes occasional appearances for a nostalgia kick more so than serious wrestling. In this way having a legacy to build off of is unquestionably helpful in staying afloat in the wrestling industry.
Many may value keeping a job in the WWE at any risk. Others may view those who have stayed with the company despite receiving no push and being considered shells of their former selves as being worthless in terms of the wrestling industry. However in the end there is a fine line between doing what is right from a moral standpoint and doing what is right from a financial standpoint.
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