ECW legend Tommy Dreamer recently had the former WWE star Johnny Jeter (from the Spirit Squad faction) as his guest on the House of Hardcore podcast this week. During the conversation, Dreamer shared some stories from his time in WWE.
Tommy Dreamer felt bad for firing talents
WWE have been making major cuts due to budget issues and they have let go a plethora of talents since the pandemic hit.It was also previously speculated that Kevin Owens will be released by WWE. John Laurinaitis is the head of talent relations in WWE and he takes the responsibility to let the talents know about the release. Dreamer recalled how he had a very difficult time telling wrestlers they were being released when he was in charge of talent for OVW(Ohio Valley Wrestling), which was previously the developmental territory of WWE.
Dreamer revealed it was very difficult for him to relieve the stars of their duties, and he has released only three wrestlers in his entire career. He also revealed a conversation with Laurinaitis about firing the talents.
Here is what he said:
“The hardest part was when they wanted to start letting some people go,” Dreamer said. “I remember telling Johnny (Laurinaitis) when I had to fire three people, and the first guy I got on the phone, I started crying. I was like, ‘I promise, I know so many indie promoters. I’ll try and get you work.’”
Dreamer continued, “I remember the second person was like, ‘I kind of saw it coming.’ By the third person, I believe it was Lamont. He was Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller’s butler. He was in developmental. I couldn’t fire somebody on the phone like Johnny. When I hung up the phone, I was seriously balling my eyes out because I knew these people. I had to go down there and tell them. At the end, they would say, ‘It’s ok, I’ll be ok’, and I would say, ‘No, you don’t understand. I hate doing this.’
Then I had to go back and tell Johnny, ‘Listen, I can’t do this. So if this is part of my job, I can’t do it.’ He said, ‘Do you think I like firing people?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘If you don’t do it, somebody else will.’ I said, ‘Ok, cool. That somebody else will be you.’ That settled my argument with him. Seriously, I fired three people in my entire life and I can’t hack it because I feel like I’m crushing their dream and I’m crushing their soul.”
