Já são conhecidas as principais razões que levaram ao despedimento de Paul London, Kenny Dykstra e Elijah Burke (sem dúvida os nomes mais surpreendentes da lista de dispensas da WWE). A saber:
PAUL LONDON
London has been in the dog house with WWE for years and mainly since he smiled on a live shoot during the infamous pre-Vince McMahon limo explosion angle in June of 2007. Everyone on the roster was told to be backstage for that live shot (the limo explosion had been shot the night before) and to have a look of disdain as Vince walked by. London had a big grin on his face and many looked at that as the beginning of the end for him. He also had heat before that when he was told to deliver a heartfelt promo about losing the Cruiserweight title, but turned it into a goofy comedy promo that the company didn't like. London was often described as having no instincts as a performer and how his character should be doing promos despite many feeling he had tons of ability as a performer. Others stated London was labeled as a complainer backstage, especially when he requested time off on a few occasions which the common rule is you don't ask for unless you are experiencing burnout and labels you as someone you can't fully trust to get behind. London reportedly asked for the time off as he wasn't sure he wanted to commit his life to pro wrestling. While Vince agreed to give him time off, he came back looking ready to go and then a month later people felt the same issues he had before were returning. Believe it or not, his former relationship with Ashley Massaro scored him some negative points backstage. There were plans within WWE to push London and Brian Kendrick as the next Rock & Roll Express style tag team, but those plans were dropped after London didn't perform well in numerous promos that never ended up airing. One source described London as a headache to work with among creative.
KENNY DYKSTRA
Dykstra was often labeled by many as someone having tons of potential. Jim Ross reportedly first came across Dykstra at a young age at the recommendation of Walter "Killer" Kowalski who trained him. By the time Dykstra graduated high school, John Laurinaitis replaced Ross as head of talent relations and signed him. During his time in OVW, Jim Cornette always compared him to Randy Orton as both were tall, thin and had natural athletic movements. However, his stay in OVW was often labeled as someone who rubbed people the wrong way and was one of the guys who was pranked a lot to send him a message about being too cocky. Paul Heyman pushed him hard before his call-up to the main roster in The Spirit Squad. While on the main roster, he was reportedly acting goofy at the wrong times and getting noticed for only negative things in what many called a "high school attitude" when his relationship with Mickie James (the two were engaged) broke off. His move to Smackdown didn't help matters as Michael Hayes was never a supporter of his and never saw potential in him. He was given the role of being humiliated on the show as a result. There were discussions of building him back up on the Smackdown roster after he was buried on Raw, but Hayes reportedly didn't want to take the risk feeling he may not be able to handle success. Vince McMahon also remarked once that he had a swimmers body and that was taken as a sign to not push him too hard.
ELIJAH BURKE
It's interesting to note that Elijah Burke was originally slated to be moved to the Raw brand when Shelton Benjamin moved to ECW late last year, but head Raw writer Brian Gewirtz had no interest in using him and the plan was nixed. Around the same time, WWE had plans for Kofi Kingston to be called up to the main roster, but Gewirtz had no interest in him as well. Also, SmackDown head writer Michael Hayes didn't want him either, hence his move to ECW upon his debut. In another interesting trivia note, Elijah Burke was originally tapped to be part of the Spirit Squad, but turned the spot down. He believed the gimmick would kill his career, so he decided to wait longer to be called up to WWE. As it turned out, considering what happened with pretty much everyone on the team, he lasted longer than everyone sans Nic Nemeth (a.k.a. Dolph Ziggler) and Kenny Dykstra, who was ironically cut the same day. Burke was called up to the SmackDown roster in a pairing with Sylvester Terkay in the summer of 2006 and with the exception of Kenny Dykstra, the Spirit Squad members were sent back down to developmental by the end of the year. Around the same time, Burke really started to get noticed in WWE and he soon became the leader of the "New Breed." Some believed Burke had small attitude issues, but several people felt he was great with promos, and as a result, had potential to be a money star in the future. Hence, he became the lead heel of the "New Breed." However, the angle eventually ran its course and the company apparently gave up on him. Even though he was considered to be a success in his role with the "New Breed," nobody could give a good reason as to why he wasn't being used anymore, even those directly involved in the creative process. All of the recent cuts were part of WWE's decision to release talent not being used as a result of the company's cost cutting directive. Burke had not been used since May and there were obviously no plans to use him anytime soon, hence his dismissal from the company.
Ter 2 Dez 2008 - 18:40