4 WWE Superstars Vince McMahon personally fired and 4 he hired

#2 Vince McMahon fired Buff Bagwell

Former WCW star Buff Bagwell became part of Vince McMahon’s WWE at the start of the ‘Invasion’ angle in the summer of 2001, but the five-time WCW Tag Team Champion's only televised WWE match turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

At the time, an attempt was being made to push WCW as its own brand within WWE. This meant the World Heavyweight Championship match between Booker T and the debuting Bagwell on a July 2001 episode of RAW had WCW branding, WCW commentators and a WCW ring announcer.

WWE fans hijacked the main event with chants of “boring” before Kurt Angle and Steve Austin put them out of their misery by attacking both men in the ring.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet in 2014, Bagwell (real name Marcus Alexander Bagwell) recalled that Vince McMahon made the decision to end his contract shortly after the match with Booker T.

“I walked into a room with Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Johnny Ace [John Laurinaitis] and it took me five minutes to realize I was getting fired. I raised my hand and I said, 'Are y'all firing me?' And Vince says, 'No, Marc, we're not firing, we're releasing you.'”

WWE director Bruce Prichard confirmed on his Something to Wrestle With podcast in 2018 that Bagwell quickly garnered heat due to his behavior backstage, which included a fight with Shane Helms.