Former WWE Wrestler Says He Asked For His Release Publicly To Piss Off Vince McMahon

By AG

Posted on October 12, 2020

Vince McMahon Article Pic 2 WrestleFeed App

• Former WWE Wrestler Says He Asked For His Release Publicly To Piss Off Vince McMahon

While speaking to WrestlingInc, former WWE wrestler Mike Bennett (fka Mike Kanellis) discussed his release from WWE during the first round of budget cuts due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Below is what he said about asking for his release publicly:

“They [WWE] were not happy, but I had known that it would piss them off, and that was the point because I was mad because I had gone to them constantly. And this is what, I think, a lot of wrestling fans don’t understand is that me asking for my release was just a last desperation effort. I had done all I could do behind the scenes.

I had talked to Vince. I had talked to head of talent relations. I had asked for my release privately backstage. Twice I had asked for it backstage privately to which I was denied. My wife never asked for her release, which drives me nuts. My wife was fine staying there. She was like, ‘I’m good. I’ll do what they want me to do.’ She was good, and so like, it was always just me.

I wanted to be done, and I had discussions with her. I was like, ‘if I ask for my release, are you okay with that?’ And she was OK, and so like this was a boiling point of building up to the point where I finally, I had reached out to them.

And the day I asked for my release, I had finally got to the point where I had texted head of talent relations. This was the third time I asked him for my release, and I think something came up that really, I was like, ‘alright, I’m done.’ And I said, ‘look, I’m done. I don’t want to work here anymore.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to discuss this because I’ve talked to you twice about it. You guys have denied it to me.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore. I’m not enjoying it.’ I said, ‘let me go. Let me go for two years. Maybe I can come back.’ I was trying be very professional about it, and then, they ignored me.

They ignored me all day. They didn’t respond to my text. They didn’t say, ‘hey, let me call you.’ They said nothing to me. They ignored me for almost eight hours, and then finally I went, ‘that’s not right.’ You’re talent relations. Your job is to talk to the talent, and they ignored me all day. So finally I said, ‘alright, I’m going to put it publicly because that will get their attention,’ and so I did and, was it the right way to go? I don’t know, but I had to take a stand for myself and that got their attention.

And I said, OK, now finally you’re paying attention to me because I did it the right way. I was the company guy. I did everything they asked me to do, and they still ignored me and they treated me like that. And eventually, you get to the point where you’re like, ‘well, you can keep kicking dirt on me, or I’m going to stand up and fight for myself, and as a man and as a dad and as a husband, I was like, I’m not going to sit there and let you just berate me and not treat me with respect.’ And so that was kind of the final straw because I know.

I know when you say stuff like that, it doesn’t hold the company in a good light, and talent relations called me, and they said Vince is pissed. My reaction was, ‘good’. That was my thought. I went good. Maybe he’ll listen to me now, but it is what it is, and again, I did it. Things happened. I hold no ill will. It just needed to be done. I needed to be free. I needed to go do what I wanted.”

WATCH: Super Hot Video Of Former WWE Diva Maria Kanellis’ (Mike’s Wife) Juggs Being Groped:

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