4) Paul London Was Fired For Smiling During The Segment
If you recall the night that Vince was blown up in the limo, he walked by the WWE locker room on his way out. One of those people that were backstage as Vince walked by was Paul London.
London had a giant smile on his face when Vince walked by. This incident was rumored to have gotten London fired from the company.
On the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling show, London shared some stories from that night, saying that he wasn’t told much about the angle before-hand.
Here is Story From London’s Perspective
“I’m just standing here man, whatever happens I’m the village idiot. It clearly wasn’t me. Whatever is going on here it is not me clearly. So if you are going to kill somebody don’t kill the guy smiling, I’m just the idiot standing here smiling. That was my motivation. That was my mindset. It wasn’t this is so stupid and I’m going to laugh so I can wink at my friends back home and let them know I’m too cool for this.
Looking back at it the funniest thing about that segment is really all of the other wrestlers reactions or attempt at reactions and just how bad and funny it looked to see all of these actors or wrestlers, how hard they were trying to feed into this whatever it was so that was pretty comical. But we did that thing 9 times at least and I smiled every single time. Each take. It wasn’t the same smile but that was my motivation and they didn’t say anything different. I figured if they had a problem they would tell me. Vince even looked in my face on a few of these takes as he was walking around and doing these takes and looked at me. So it wasn’t like he didn’t see it 8 or 9 times.”
Vince is rumored to have watched the film back and was pissed when seeing the smile on London’s face.
3) The Backstage Reaction To The Storyline Being Dropped After The Benoit Tragedy
As we know now, the storyline was dropped after the double-murder suicide of Chris Benoit and his family. WWE chose to immediately scrap the story and have Vince McMahon tell the world on RAW that it was only an angle.
Former WWE creative team member: Chris DeJoseph was interviewed by Wrestling INC in 2015. He shared the backstage reaction to finding out about the tragedy and the Vince storyline being dropped.
Chris also played the role of ‘Big Dick Johnson’ on WWE television for a brief time. He says he was filming scenes that day before the storyline was scrapped.
Here Is How WWE Employees Found Out About Chris Benoit’s Death:
“That was a horrible day. As a character, I was in a couple of scenes crying at Vince McMahon’s casket. We had shot all the scenes; I guess “Big Dick” was really upset Vince had passed away. It was a weird feeling. I remember they called everybody out ringside and they announced that Chris was dead and they found his kid and his wife. The thing that sticks in my mind is Vickie Guerrero screaming. I’ll never forget that. It was a strange, strange day. Some people had some feelings that something wasn’t right because he didn’t show up at the pay-per-view the day before.
At that point they gave everyone the option of hanging around if they were comfortable. I don’t think they knew the details of it, and that’s when we started putting the show together of a mini-tribute to Benoit and his moments. Halfway through the show it went from a tribute to a retrospective when they found out that there was foul play involved. It was a different day from when Eddie died. The circumstances surrounding that were so strange”
Must have been a very strange time.
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