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Over the last few months, we have seen many firings within WWE. Some Superstars intentionally want to leave the company and work somewhere else, but Vince McMahon doesn't want to lose them. On the other hand, some wrestlers and other employees were given their marching orders by the company, for quite reasons this year.
While we know about most of these firings, there has been less discussion about those working backstage who have recently lost their job.
Just like a Superstar has to impress the officials to keep his or her job in the company, backstage personalities are in the same boat. They have to do their job with perfection and make sure that Vince McMahon likes the result. Some performed in their job without fault, while some made a mistake which resulted in them losing their job. The following are 6 WWE personnel who have lost their job in 2019.
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#6 Eric Bischoff
The most recent, and famous, backstage name to get fired from WWE is Eric Bischoff. The former SmackDown Executive Director acquired this position in June this year, the same month Paul Heyman became RAW Executive Director. While we saw the Heyman effect on RAW, the same couldn't be said about Bischoff, who was hired to ensure SmackDown produces engaging storylines.
Under Heyman's belt, RAW produced many segments that we will not forget anytime soon. Since WWE has signed a billion-dollar deal with FOX, they had to make sure that the blue brand provides value to the audience, and profit to its broadcasting network. This is why, Vince McMahon pulled the triggers and replaced Eric Bischoff with Bruce Prichard, who has years of experience in managing wrestling shows.
“Bischoff’s firing is Vince McMahon’s reaction to the ratings and a message to his stockholders that he is entirely committed to the future success of SmackDown on FOX," as per Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated. (Credits for the quotes)
ALSO READ: Backstage details on Eric Bischoff being replaced on SmackDown
#5 Arn Anderson
One of the most shocking firings of this year was of Arn Anderson. For a few days after he lost his job, it wasn't clear why Vince McMahon fired his long-tenured employee.
According to reports, the reason Arn got fired was that he allowed Alicia Fox to wrestle during a house show while she was intoxicated. WWE's list of rules is meant for everybody and if one does anything against it, he or she, no matter what, will get punished.
In this case, it was Arn's responsibility to avoid this incident taking place but he made a mistake and as a result, Vince McMahon fired him. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter also spoke about the incident and revealed that McMahon and Anderson weren't on good terms for many years:
"Arn and Vince were not really on the best of terms," he said. "There had been a lot of situations over the years, one particular one not too long ago.
#4 Dasha Fuentes
Dasha Fuentes worked for WWE from 2014 to April 2019 as a backstage interviewer, and also had a short stint as a wrestler. Over the last few years, she interviewed many WWE Superstars and while she did a decent job, some fans didn't like her style.
According to reports, Vince McMahon was not impressed with her work and a series of incidents resulted in her losing her position from WWE.
"Vince McMahon didn’t like that Fuentes was “redundant and pausing” her speech during the interview, which contributed to the termination."
Later, Dasha spoke to Chris Van Vliet, where she revealed that during an interview with Roman Reigns, on April 1st edition of RAW she made a slip-up that wasn't tolerated by Vince McMahon. This was the final straw that forced him to fire the backstage interviewer.
#3 Ryan Callahan
Ryan Callahan was the lead "home" writer for Monday Night RAW. He worked for WWE for a few years but in May 2019, Vince McMahon fired him. However, he didn't lose his job because of a rating drop but rather for being someone who "was difficult to work with".
As reported by Fightful.com, Callahan had some issues with another lead writer of RAW, David Kapoor, whom we also know as Ranjin Singh (The Great Khali's manager).
Reportedly, Callahan was taking creative changes "too personally" and it didn't set a great example for fellow writers in WWE. When the issue was brought up to Vince McMahon, he immediately fired Callahan from WWE.
#2 & #1 Steve Oppenheim and Steve Guerreri
The reason we have aligned Steve Oppenheim and Steve Guerreri together is that they were fired at the same time. Oppenheim worked as an in-office lead writer for RAW and was working for WWE since 2011. On the other hand, Guerreri was the co-lead writer for SmackDown since 2012.
Both were fired sometime after WWE had hired Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff as RAW and SmackDown's Executive Directors respectively, but they had nothing to do with these releases. WWE has been losing ratings for a while now, and according to reports, Vince McMahon decided to fire these two writers in order to "shake things up" in WWE.
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