Backstage Note on How Talent Viewed Road Dogg in WWE

There are still many questions surrounding the recent WWE exit of Brian “Road Dogg” James, who was working as the co-lead writer of Friday Night SmackDown, and is said to have voluntarily quit his position last week. His exit was brought up during this week’s Fightful Select Answers Q&A, with a user asking Sean Ross Sapp if Road Dogg’s exit was related to Chelsea Green.

The user question is referring to one of the more viral clipped moments from WWE: Unreal Season 2 on Netflix. During a creative meeting, Road Dogg pitched Green to regain the WWE Women’s United States Title. However, when he was challenged on the idea by WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who questioned Road Dogg about who Green could work with after winning the title.

Road Dogg appeared defensive about the idea and wasn’t about to follow up with Triple H on some proper suggestions when he got some pushback. Many viewed it as a moment of Road Dogg not coming off well in the docuseries.

Although Sapp speculated that Road Dogg didn’t leave over the Chelsea Green-related clip on WWE: Unreal, he did point out that a lot of people in WWE were still surprised by the exit. Additionally, Sapp notes that Road Dogg was “very well liked among talent.”

Interestingly, another WWE Hall of Famer and Senior Producer, Michael Hayes, became the subject of controversy over comments regarding Chelsea Green on WWE: Unreal. Hayes later defended his comments when appearing on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under Podcast.

With regards to Road Dogg, the Hall of Famer reportedly left due to being unhappy, and it’s rumored that he opted to step away after being unhappy with his annual performance review.