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WWE's sponsors play a major role in processing the funding for their shows, which means that the company has to keep the sponsors happy no matter what. With WWE trying to push their product forward in an ever-changing world, this can sometimes be a problem when WWE looks to try out any risky storylines or character debuts.
In recent years, The Fiend's character has been seen as "too scary" by many of WWE's sponsors and the company has had several issues when it comes to finding a place for him within WWE.
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Luckily, The Fiend's character is one of the lucky ones that hasn't been canceled and Bray Wyatt hasn't been fired as a result of these complaints. Instead, The Fiend has been pushed over to Monday Night RAW where he's one of the company's most popular Superstars.
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Of course, over the years there have been several WWE Superstars who haven't been as lucky. The following list looks at just a few WWE Superstars who ended up on the wrong side of the sponsors.
#5. Fired: WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan is now a former WWE Champion and a Superstar who is transitioning into a part-time career with WWE so that he can continue to help in the company's creative team on SmackDown.
Bryan has a good standing in WWE at present, but it wasn't always this way since the former Champion made a lasting impression on his debut, when he was seen strangling Justin Roberts with a tie.
This was part of the debut of Nexus. Bryan thought that he was doing what was right at the time, but the sponsors who later viewed the show didn't agree and after just one main roster appearance, Bryan was fired from the company back in 2010.
Whilst speaking with Inside The Ropes last year, former Nexus leader and WWE Superstar Wade Barrett revealed the real reason why Bryan was fired from WWE.
“It was a silly thing to fire him for, but I believe one of the main sponsors of WWE made a complaint that they didn’t like how horrific it was and how lowdown disgusting it was. The only way Vince could respond to that was to fire Daniel Bryan for it.”
Luckily, Bryan was already seen as a popular Superstar at this point and the company had some pressure from the fans to bring him back, which they did a few months later at SummerSlam.
#4. Gimmick canceled: Former WWE Superstar Muhammad Hassan
Muhammad Hassan was one of the unfortunate WWE Superstars who was promoted to the main roster by the company, but lasted less than a year after his debut. Hassan was given a controversial gimmick at the wrong time and given the fact that WWE didn't want to get on the wrong side of their sponsors, they were forced to fire Hassan instead.
Hassan was part of a controversial angle on SmackDown back in 2005 which saw him pray after Davari suffered a defeat to The Undertaker, which brought out an army of masked men who then beat down The Deadman.
Davari was then carried away by the masked men. This segment was removed from Australian and European broadcasts of the show and it went on to gain a lot of media attention since the London Bombings took place just three days later.
UPN went on to pressure WWE to keep Hassan off TV and monitored the situation throughout, but given the events that were happening in the world at the time, WWE bowed to the pressure and the WWE Superstar was released from his contract in September 2005, just two months later.
#3. Fired: Former WWE star Jim Ross
Jim Ross is a WWE Hall of Famer and a legend behind the announce desk, but after hosting the WWE 2K14 panel for the company back in 2013, Ross landed in some hot water with WWE's sponsors.
At the time, Ric Flair was reportedly struggling with some personal issues and turned up to the panel slightly drunk, telling several stories that should never have become public knowledge.
Ross was the person hosting the event and he was unable to gain control after Flair's outburst. This made the sponsors of the panel upset and led to Vince McMahon being unhappy with Ross for not fixing the situation.
Ross later confirmed that despite reports stating that he wanted to retire, the panel was the reason for his departure.
“I was conductor of a runaway train, I was supposed to keep it on the tracks and that didn’t happen. So I don’t have any issues taking responsibility. Did I envision that it would help facilitate my exit? No. But I could see the thinking behind it.”
Ross has since made several appearances for WWE but is now associated with All Elite Wrestling.
#2. Gimmick canceled: Former WWE Superstar Goldust
Goldust was always seen as a controversial character in WWE, but whilst the WWE Universe enjoyed the fact that the Superstar pushed the envelope throughout his early career, WWE's sponsors didn't feel the same way.
Vince Russo recently spoke to Sportskeeda about the Goldust character being scrapped and confirmed that it was the sponsors that were behind the decision.
“Bro, one day Vince [Vince McMahon] calls me in and is like, ‘[Throat-slitting gesture] It’s over, it’s done.’ I mean, there was no [argument] because it was affecting business. Bro, what do you do? We go from that guy to Dustin Rhodes? What could you possibly do?”
Russo also revealed that he felt bad for Goldust after his gimmick was canceled, but that was the nature of the business.
“I felt so freaking bad for Dustin, man. That was business, bro. It was USA, it was sponsors. We started getting a lot of calls and they just cut it loose, man. That was it.”
Despite Dustin Rhodes' character being canceled in 1997, the Superstar was later able to reprise the role just a year later.
#1. Fired: Former WWE Superstar Fit Finlay
Many WWE fans will remember Finlay as the Superstar "who loved to fight" but after his in-ring career wound down, Finlay moved to a production role backstage.
Back in 2011, Finlay was shockingly released from the company after he made the decision to have The Miz run in and interrupt the US National Anthem at a house show.
The sponsors were not happy about the move to get cheap heat on The Awesome Superstar and according to CageSideSeats Finlay was the man who had to be released in order to appease them.
"Representatives of the National Guard were angry at WWE for using this type of cheap heat, so since Finlay was the producer in charge of the show and presumably made the call, he had to be fired to appease them."
Finlay has since been rehired by WWE and is one of the main stars who have been behind the Women's Revolution over the past few years. So it appears that the former Superstar has managed to put these issues behind him.
