JR is fired....I mean, has retired!

 



Yeah, I think that's what I mean. It seems that yesterday, yes that's right, on 9/11, JR apparently decided it would be a great time to announce that he was leaving the company. Or did he? After that original press release, or information given by the WWE on their website, now some other minor details are starting to unfold, such as the fact that Vince had decided to get rid of JR, but called it, 'JR leaving' on the WWE official website, in order to make JR, who lets face it, many consider to be a legend in this business, look like he left on his own accord. Obviously leaving by yourself, and being asked to leave, are two completely different things!

It seems that the recent WWE 2K14 presentation, that JR hosted, with a star studded panel, is what cost him his job. Ric Flair [one of the panel], decided he would go off on a some drunken tangents during the night, and JR was not able to keep him in check, and move the show on, so 'Vince' basically terminated him for it [the full WWE 2k14 conference can be found on youtube]. 

Whether that is actually the reason he was fired, is arguable. The truth is, Vince McMahon has not liked 'good old JR'  for some time now. He made life difficult for him in the 90's, when he had his attacks of bell's palsy. He took him off commentary all together in 2005, and replaced him with Joey Styles, only to bring him back, then take him off, then bring him back every now and then, and so on. He finally took him off full time and gave him other roles in the company [as he did with Joey Styles as a matter of fact, who now works on the WWE site, last I heard anyway]. 

It wouldn't surprise me, and shouldn't surprise you, if Vince had thought about a way to get rid of JR for some time. Rather than just walk up to him and say 'I don't like you, you're out of here,' he needed some reason, but what reason good JR possibly give him? He didn't do steroids or offer anybody backstage any drugs. He didn't sleep around. He didn't make any nasty comments on the company, in the various interviews he gave. Aaah, but he failed to put Ric Flair in his place during the 2K14 stuff! That'll do, that's reason enough! Obviously Ric Flair can't be touched, he doesn't work for the WWE, but JR did, and now he doesn't.

Oh feel the love between them



Now look, I'm not some big fan of JR. He was never my favourite commentator in the WWE [although he wasn't my least favourite, Jerry Lawler takes that trophy]. To be honest, I was glad when he was taken off commentary. I mean, what did he actually do, while under contract with the WWE? Write a blog? Get Vince to put his barbeque sauce in the WWE shop? Talk to wrestlers backstage every now and then? Host the occasional get-together, like the 2K14 one? He might have done some others things too, that I don't currently remember, but let's face it, in a wrestling company, once you disappear off the air, and start doing stuff off screen, the fans stop caring about you. They forget about you, until you make an occasional one-off cameo on television again. He wasn't significant anymore, and Vince most likely felt that he didn't want to pay him, for being insignificant, anymore. It's just, if you don't want the man to work for you Vince, tell him, and get rid of him, don't look for some incident during some conference [or whatever you want to call the WWE 2K14 promo event], that isn't even his fault, and try to scapegoat him for it! Come on, where's your ruthless aggression? Have the balls to tell him what you think of him, rather than taking his job and then pretending it was JR's decision, and all ended well in your own little fairy tale land.

Of course, with the way this business goes, it's unlikely JR is going to reveal anything about the last conversation he had with Vince. Why? Simple. This is the kind of business where you can be thrown out of the company one minute, and then brought back a year later. Many wrestlers have parted ways with the WWE on, how to put it nicely, not the best terms, but when the WWE decided that they needed them, because they thought they would draw, they brought them back. Wrestling fans often pop for somebody who has been away for a while, even if they didn't care about them that much when they were there every week. They'd most likely pop for JR if he made a return, or even if the announcement that JR is returning was made. JR knows this is a possibility, so unless he is in a position where he feels that's it, there's absolutely no way he has any chance of being re signed [like Jim Cornette], he is going to try to keep in good terms with Big Vinnie Mac, and that's that. The WWE often bring legendary people back when the ratings drop, and JR knows he might be getting a call from Vince at some point in the future.