What's the story?
More details have emerged about WWE firing popular writer and wrestler Jimmy Jacobs after initial reports claimed that he was fired for taking a picture with the Bullet Club during their staged 'invasion' outside Monday Night Raw.
In case you didn't know...
Jimmy Jacobs is a wrestling veteran who's wrestled for countless indie promotions and is a legend in Ring of Honor, where he held the tag team titles twice with Seth Rollins (Tyler Black in ROH) and 3 times with different partners.
A few weeks back the Bullet Club just happened to be in the same place as Monday Night Raw so decided to stage a mock 'DX' style invasion, turning up outside the taping. During this 'invasion' popular WWE writer and indy wrestler, Jimmy Jacobs posed for a photo with the indy wrestling stable, and that has allegedly led to his firing.
The heart of the matter
The new details still suggest that the above photo with the Bullet Club is still at the heart of the WWE's decision to fire Jimmy Jacobs. However, PWInsider has revealed some more of the elements behind the WWE's decision. (via Wrestlezone)
They note that even though Jacobs was seen as 'one of the boys' and was well liked in the locker room, that WWE higher-ups viewed Jacobs as 'ignoring his job' because he went out and took the picture with the Bullet Club whilst he was supposed to be working.
To make matters worse in doing so Jacobs inadvertently helped to boost the appeal and notoriety of a competitors wrestlers. The incident clearly angered the WWE enough that they finally decided to issue a cease and desist to the Young Bucks for using the 'too sweet' hand gesture.
PWInsider would go on to note that whilst the photo was the catalyst there were other niggling reasons that contributed to the WWE's decision, such as the fact that Jacobs had recently had time off over the summer to sort out some personal matters which 'put a target on his back'.
What's next?
WWE has yet to officially confirm that Jacobs has parted ways with the company, and Jacobs himself has been rather coy with his social media activity since the story broke, although I think it's safe to say that it is in fact true. That being said, because of the lack of official announcement from either party, it's hard to know what's next for them.
Author's take
Jacobs seems like a big loss to me, I've heard that he was behind storylines like the Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho friendship which was the best part of Raw for a long time. However, I think it's pretty obvious that fraternising with a competitor's staff on company time is likely to land you in hot water!