If you don’t know the name Jim Johnston, he is responsible for some of the most iconic theme songs in WWE history. Johnston created the theme songs of The Undertaker, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mr. McMahon and many more. He worked with WWE for over 30 years before being fired in 2017.
Johnston was recently interviewed on Total Engagement with Matt Koon, where he opened up about his firing from WWE.
Here is what he said (h/t to Fightful for the quotes below):
“I was getting cut out. That was by design. Not necessarily Vince’s design, but other folks. It’s his company, he can do whatever the hell he wants with it. It isn’t like he owes me a job. I knew this was coming to an end and particularly maybe for the last year, I knew the writing was on the wall. This guy has pushed me out, but you know I was so discouraged by it all and I wasn’t doing what I want to do, which is to write great music and I am a worker. I don’t want a job where I don’t have to work. There wasn’t ever a millisecond where I thought, ‘Wow, isn’t this great? I’m really not doing that much music, but they’re continuing to pay me! Oh my God, what a great deal!’ It was awful. I hate that. I hated that feeling. I’ve got handcuffs on, I can’t contribute and I eventually told Vince that as well. I said, ‘this is not right.’ I also told him at the time, ‘hey, if you’re unhappy with me, fire me. Fire me right now. You can fire me right now. I’m taking the pressure off. Go ahead. Fire me.
“I had my one meeting with Vince and ultimately nothing changed and then suddenly I got a meet and planner one day that I had a meeting in Vince’s office the next afternoon and I knew in an instant, ‘Okay tomorrow at four, I’m being fired.It was a scary time, but it was a very brief event because after he said his piece I was like, ‘okay’ and I stood up and left.”
On a related note, check out some stories about WWE stars who were fired after random incidents.