WWE News: WWE backstage veteran talks about being fired from the company

What's the story?

Former WWE backstage veteran, Jim Johnston, recently appeared on MLW Radio Network's Sean Mooney podcast for an interview. Johnston was recently fired from WWE on the 30th of November, 2017, after 32 years of working for them.

In the interview, Johnston opened up about his experiences while 8working for WWE, how they changed in recent years, his firing, and the problem with modern WWE superstar's themes.

In case you didn't know...

Johnston was a music composer of WWE and was the one who came up with the themes for some of the top stars. He composed the entrance themes of The Undertaker, The Rock, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, Mr McMahon, Chris Jericho as well as more recent stars like Dolph Ziggler's original 'I am Perfection', CM Punk and Kofi Kingston just to name a few.

Since 2014, CFO$ took over the responsibility of composing the wrestler's entrance themes, decreasing the input Johnston had. WWE fired him in November of 2017, and this is the first time he opened up for an interview.

The heart of the matter

During the interview, Johnston delved into his experiences in working for WWE and aired his grievances about how his time in working for the company came to an end.

Johnston revealed that he left Titan Tower and WWE Studios three years ago, and had been working from a studio in his own house since then, where he composed the entrance themes of Corbin and Jinder.

He said that during his last years with the company, communication fell apart, and he felt betrayed by people who he had thought were his friends. Jim was fired from the company, during a conversation with WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon.

"I had a brief conversation with Vince and it was over. All I'll say is that I think there were a lot of ways to end it, and the way that it ended was, I think, there were better ways to end it to where everyone could've walked away with a much better feeling.

After thirty-two years, it feels like a lost opportunity to me and I don't really understand it."

He aired his grievance with WWE and said that no one knew who he was, despite his resume and years with the company, because WWE refused to have TV credits for production staff. He said that due to this, his career was almost starting from scratch.

Johnston also talked about what he thought was wrong with the entrance themes of current WWE stars. He said that the entrance themes had become a commodity which had no relation to the characters of the stars.

"It has less to do with the character and selling the character, it's now something that coincidentally plays while somebody comes out."

He had some good memories with the company as well, mentioning Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Jericho, as stars were kind and polite to him. He even called the Undertaker 'sweet' and gracious.

What's next?

Johnston is going to continue his career in music and has encouraged people to get in touch if they want to work with him.

Author's take

As a 32 year veteran of the industry, it is sad that Johnston's time with WWE came to an end the way that it did. Hopefully, he can have a new start where he will receive the credit that he deserves for his work.

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