Rob Conway has revealed the original plans after his WWE firing.
The former WWE star left the company in 2007 after a 7-year run. His final match with the promotion came during the January 1 episode of Raw, where he lost a match to Jeff Hardy in just 21 seconds and was subsequently fired by Vince McMahon. He remained under contract with the company for a few more months before officially being released in May that year.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rob Conway opened up about the angle. He first revealed that his match with Hardy was so short because he had a broken nose and could not get hit in the face. While discussing his release from the company, the wrestling veteran revealed that the original idea was for him to reunite with his partner Sylvan on SmackDown:
They had to keep me off TV till after WrestleMania, because the whole ‘You’re fired’ was to spark the angle between Vince and Donald Trump. So if I showed up two weeks later, he didn’t do a very good job of firing me. So after WrestleMania, then I was supposed to start on SmackDown with Sylvain, because together we were gold, separately they didn’t really do that much with either one of us.
People Thought I Got Fired On TV: Rob Conway
Sylvan reunited with the third member of La Résistance, René Duprée, in ECW in February 2007. The team was disbanded once again, however, after Duprée was suspended and sent to rehab for a wellness policy violation in March. Both Sylvan and Duprée were then also released from their contracts a few months apart.
Discussing the turn of events, Rob Conway mentioned how the firing angle hurt his stock because he had been off TV much longer than he would have been if he was released in January:
It kind of hurt my stock, so to speak, because most people get fired, released, and then 90 days, and you can start on TV. Well, I was off TV until I got released, I think, in May, and they kept paying me till August, but I’d been off TV for nine months. People thought I got fired on TV. So it literally was like I’m the only guy who got fired on TV and really seemingly got fired.
The 53-year-old has continued wrestling on the independent circuit after the end of his WWE run. He also made a WWE return in 2018, serving as a guest coach at the Performance Center.
