Duke ‘The Dumpster’ Droese was recently a guest on the ‘Steve Austin Show’ podcast. During the interview, Droese spoke on a wide variety of topics about his career.
One of the most interesting parts was when Droese shared his final interaction with Vince McMahon before he was released from WWE. This was back in 1996.
Here is what he said about the day that he was released (h/t to Wrestlezone for the quotes below):
“I started doing more drugs. I started training less. That was my big ‘Fu*k you’ to the office. I’m not gonna train and I’m not gonna tan and I’m gonna look like sh*t, which makes all the sense in the world and I started using a lot more drugs and getting more irrational and I would have these meetings at TV where I would talk to Vince and just say, ‘Well what are you gonna do with me?’ Vince always had [Jerry] Brisco standing right next to him when he’d talk to me because I think he was worried that I was gonna pull a Nailz on him or some sh*t, I don’t know. Clearly, I was extremely irrational at that point, but what ended up happening is I just got frustrated to the point where I actually said this sh*t to Vince McMahon one day, ‘If you ain’t gonna use me any better than this, just send me on home.’ That’s what I fu*king said to Vince McMahon. Those were the words that came out of my mouth. Of course, he didn’t sell it at all. Later
on he came back with an idea where I was gonna work in Memphis and he was gonna pay me a grand a week and I’ll never forget it. My next words to him were, ‘I’m gonna need to have that in writing.’ [laughter] Brisco almost popped on that one. He almost started laughing his ass off on that one and Vince did that thing where he swallows and looks at you funny and it was shortly thereafter where Brisco came up to me on TV and said, ‘Vince said you can go on home.’ That was pretty much the end of it”
On a related note, here are some more stories about Superstars who were released from WWE.