Details On SmackDown Star’s Release, What’s Next For Tag Partner

Simon Gotch’s release this week wasn’t a surprising announcement–the Vaudevillains had been floundering at the bottom of SmackDown’s tag team roster, after all–but the context was more than a little curious.

Fellow Vaudevillain Aiden English remains on the roster, and no other names joined to make it the usual post-WrestleMania “spring cleaning.” Based on English taking the pin in a tag team contest prior to this week’s SmackDown, it seems that the decision was a last-minute one.

According to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), Gotch had been under fire backstage for some time. This stems in part from his (real life) brawl with Sin Cara last year, and it’s been reported that “his personality rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.”

Aiden English will reportedly now be getting a singles push, returning to the Broadway singer gimmick that he used in NXT prior to forming the Vaudevillains.

Breezango accuse The Vaudevillains of stealing: SmackDown LIVE Exclusive: Nov. 8, 2016

Additionally–and take it with a grain of salt–somebody with apparent inside knowledge on Reddit has suggested that Gotch was considered an unsafe worker, putting his fellow WWE stars at risk in the ring. Anybody can claim to be an insider, of course, but this user accurately predicted both debuts on SmackDown including some very specific details.