Details Behind SmackDown Star’s Release Revealed

Simon Gotch’s release from WWE wasn’t necessarily surprising–the Vaudevillains had been adrift at the bottom of the tag team division for ages, after all–but it was sudden.

According to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), one strange incident could have been what put WWE officials over the edge in letting Gotch go. The incident saw Gotch tip over his own chair in catering, and the wrestler got mad when he fell. It was reportedly bad enough to cause a scene. This took place just before the April 4th SmackDown following WrestleMania.

That’s not necessarily enough to let someone go on its own, but WWE officials had reportedly been unhappy with Gotch for some time. The biggest incident was a backstage fight with Sin Cara last year, and Gotch had been on shaky ground ever since. He reportedly rubbed a lot of people backstage the wrong way.

The official story is that Gotch requested his own release, and there might be something to that. The Vaudevillains had a dark match before the April 4th SmackDown, and it was Aiden English–not Gotch–who took the pin, which would be an odd move if WWE officials had already planned to let him go.

But now Aiden English has returned to his Broadway singer gimmick on SmackDown, and by all accounts Tuesday night’s backstage atmosphere has gotten a lot brighter.