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Whilst speaking to Lilian Garcia on her podcast, “Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia” Heath Slater spoke about how he felt WWE treated him prior to his release.
“Yeah, I lost my job … but I was burnt out, man. Burnt the hell out,” he explained. “I knew it. Family knew it. My coworkers knew it. I was just burned out. Fourteen years; four years developmental, ten years on the road. To where it’s like, you can be promised, you can be told, you can even have it in your hand and ready, and it just changes at the drop of a dime.”
“Then it’s one of those things where like putting everyone over for ten years will take a toll on somebody,” Slater continued. “Confidence, and your drive, your fire, all of that … it’s like, my goodness … I do everything you ask and, like, I can’t get a bone? That type of thing. I went through those a lot. A lot! And I wish I would’ve took more control. Walked in and said, ‘Why is this happening? Why are we doing this? Why can’t we do it this way? I have fifteen other damn great reasons why we could do it this way, but why are we going that way?’ It takes a toll on you a little bit.”
Heath Slater was one of the many superstars released on Wednesday April 15th 2020, A day that will go down as one of the darkest in wrestling history. Many of the superstars who were released put out emotional videos and tweets, which got a lot of interaction with fans. Most notably Drake Maverick, who, despite no longer being with the company, they have still allowed him to compete in the NXT Cruiserweight Championship interim tournament, which is currently taking place on WWE NXT.
Slater goes on to say how he has pitched many great ideas to creative, however they either don’t use them or give the storyline to another superstar.
“I heard no too many times. To where I literally said, ‘You know what? Sh*t. I ain’t gonna pitch no more sh*t. Because when I do, it goes nowhere. Or if I do pitch something good, they give it to someone else,” said Slater. “It’s just one of those things where like … when you get tired of hearing no, no, no, no, no. Not for you, not for you, not for you, not for you. You can’t do that, no, no, no. You kinda start believing. You know? You kinda start damn believing it!”
Adding, “Getting fired; I really believe I needed this. The times are crazy, the times are weird now because you can’t go out and make money and all that stuff. But I really believe I needed this to get the fire, get the hunger, focus. I can honestly tell you that, out of the last four to five years, besides me and Terry (Rhyno) winning the tag titles – which was an awesome little run – I have been so burned out and just not even really caring. To where this happened, to where I have to say thank you for lighting that fire for me again.”
Slater also goes on to talk about which promotions he is currently interested in working with, some of those being NWA, AEW & Impact.
Listen to the full interview below,
Special thanks to Pro Wrestling Sheet for the transcription