Eric Young was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet. During this, he opened up about his release from WWE and Vince McMahon failing as a leader. Below are some of the highlights (via 411 Mania).
Young on WWE’s broken system:
“Everything in my life was based around pro wrestling and how I could further myself and advance my career, and the last three years, I hated it. I didn’t watch it. I didn’t talk about it. I avoided it as much as possible. Yeah, and that’s a weird place to be in. And I will say, with WWE, I’m not the first guy to say this. [Jon] Moxley talked about this a bunch when he left the company, under much different circumstances. That’s his choice. They were throwing a bunch of money his way, and he chose to step away. And that’s powerful thing. And the things that he said, it’s very real. It’s a broken system. It’s impossible to be creative. It’s impossible to get ahead. It’s impossible to even feel like you have a foothold in your career at all. I’m a person who spent 20+ years grinding trying to make my reputation, and it’s basically dumped on by one person for no reason whatsoever. He looked up from his cellphone for five seconds, saw something that maybe he didn’t agree with in that moment, and that’s the end of it.”
“So, the whole time you’re there, you’re just trying to fix other people’s mistakes. That’s what it feels like. And that’s an exhausting process. He wants everyone to be the same and do the same things and sell the same way, and that’s not what pro wrestling is to me.”
Young on Vince McMahon failing as a leader:
“He always treated me with respect when we talked. We definitely had a few personal conversations between me and him. I had pitched some things and told him what I thought. He was receptive to it. Nothing ever came from it. I don’t take it personally, but I’m in this position because he couldn’t recognize that I had anything to offer. And the last thing I’ll say about it is this: If you have a three hour television show, pro wrestling television show, and you can’t find something for me to do, then you’re failing as a leader. Plain and simple. You failed your company. You failed the shareholders, you failed the fans, and you failed yourself. The reason I wasn’t on the show was his choice, no one else’s. I think if you’d ask most of the people who worked there, they would be in my corner. He was not in my corner, so I wasn’t on the show, and I would tell him to his face, you failed as a leader. You can’t find something for Eric Young to do.”
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