It didn't come as much of a shock to any when it was announced that now-former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch had been released from the company, however, it was a bit of a head scratcher when it was revealed that Gotch himself had actually requested the release.
Gotch started off in the professional wrestling industry in 2002 and began working the independent circuit for 11 years before landing a contract with the WWE. Gotch was thrusted into the WWE's developmental show of NXT where he was paired with Aiden English as a member of The Vaudevillians.
Gotch and English won the NXT Tag Team Championships together before dropping them to The Revival just months later. The pair soon made their main roster debut in April of 2016 on an episode of SmackDown Live where they defeated The Lucha Dragons. The Vaudevillian characters never really resonated with fans and they were rarely seen on WWE TV for some time.
The WrestleMania 33 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal served as Gotch's final WWE match, however, he was eliminated and the battle royal was soon won by Mojo Rawley. One year after making his main roster debut with the company, Gotch announced he had been released from his WWE deal upon request.
The release initially came as no surprise to anyone, as it had been reported that Gotch wasn't like much backstage and had been involved in various altercations. It was soon announced that Gotch was, in fact, the one who requested his release from the WWE and it was not the company's decision.
He recently did an interview with Wrestle:List to discuss his time with the company, and explained how he was really unhappy during his run with them (quotes via Wrestling Inc.):
"I was really unhappy. I'd actually been pretty unhappy there for a while. It's kind of an odd little side story – the previous year, right after the takeover they did in Dallas, which myself and my former tag team partner Aiden English weren't even on the live special from Dallas.
"And I'd always been really close with Biff Busick or Oney Lorcan as he's now known, and he walked by and said 'Hey man, how are you doing,' and I just looked at him and said 'I f--king hate this place.
"I want to quit,' and he got this huge grin on his face. If you've ever seen Biff smile you know he's got this very unique sort of half smile does, but it was that thing of really, frustration building up and being really depressed about how we were being used.
"And you always want to be doing more and when you're feeling like you're not being allowed to you're literally being barred from doing more, it can wear on you a lot."
What are your thoughts on Gotch's explanation for why he left the WWE? Have YOUR say in the comments section below and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!
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