Brian Myers Was ‘Thrilled’ By First WWE Release, Recalls Origin Of Ring Name

Brian Myers says that contrary to what you might expect, he was “thrilled” by his first WWE release. Myers’ initial run in WWE ran from 2006 to 2014, first as Brian Major(s) and then Curt Hawkins. He was let go in June of 2014 along with a number of other stars.

Myers, who returned to the company for a four year run from 2016 to 2020, appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet and during the conversation he was asked about that initial release. He noted that it was a great day for him because he hadn’t been used for quite some time and wasn’t enjoying that. He also talked about the origin of the Curt Hawkins ring name; you can see highlights below:

On the Origin of ‘Curt Hawkins’:

“With the Majors, they didn’t want Matt to be Matt Brett. He was Brett Matthews. They made him Brett Majors, and I was Brian Majors, and they just didn’t want us to be brothers. Then when we did the reveal with Edge, Vince thought we were real brothers, apparently, and it came up in the meeting, unbeknownst to us. So we debuted with Adam at Armageddon, that was Sunday Night. Raw, we don’t go do because we’re SmackDown talent. This is Tuesday, so we show up Tuesday and they come out of the meeting like, ‘You guys need new names. You need them now. ‘Then there was, of course, the WWE clusterf*ck sh*t.

“I remember, Johnny goes, ‘No, you’re with Edge now, you need cool names, like razor and slash.’ And we’re like, Oh, okay. So we were really brainstorming, oh sh*t, that’s not what we’re thinking. Then Michael Hayes, we see him later today, goes, ‘That’s not what he said. He wants to just have, real believable names.’ We’re like, okay, that’s completely different, because at one point we were going to be Kedis, and Cobain. we’ll tie it in with Edge. A rated R rock star? Then we went and saw Vince, and we clarified. He said, No. So just regular names. And then Curt Hawkins is from Curt Hennig, one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. So it was a little tribute, and I was a fake Edge. So Taylor Hawkins always looked like Edge to me. I would tell Adam that. He’s a big [Foo Fighters fan].”

On His First WWE Release:

“Yes, one of the best days of my life. Because I was so young, they weren’t using me for, at that point, almost a year and a half. That’s why I started the school, because I was just miserable. They would not call me for two months, three months at a time, and they’d be like, ‘You’re not coming to Raw.’ It just wasn’t comfortable. Plus, when you love something and you’re being paid to not participate in it, it’s just not a great feeling. So I was thrilled, I got fired on Thursday, I wrestled Friday, Saturday on these shindies in New Jersey, and I couldn’t have been happier. That said, my goal was to get back, and I did it two years to the date, I want to say it was.”