Road Dogg Addresses Conspiracy Theory Surrounding His WWE Release

WWE released “Road Dogg” Brian James on January 5, 2022, from his WWE contract as part of the company’s restructuring of the NXT brand, and there has since been much speculation as to why the company decided to do so. During a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, James assessed the “conspiracy theory” surrounding his departure (per Wrestling Inc.):

“In every conspiracy theory, there’s a wrinkle of truth, right?. So I don’t think that’s the case [being let go because he was a close associate of Triple H]. I think what they did – and look, I think again, it’s business. And so because I was on the business side of this business for the past ten years, I look at it differently than I would’ve looked at it from the boys’ perspective …

“The fact that they cut me and my brother and thirteen others that day from NXT, from a business decision, ‘Man, you just saved us probably 5-10 million dollars in a year.’ You know what I mean? So from a business perspective, ‘Hey, we’ve gotta trim some fat down there.” Now, if by trimming that fat – my name came into play because I was a Hunter guy, I can’t speak to that, I don’t think that would be the case. I think it would be, ‘Hey, we’ve gotta get rid of a bunch of people. These are the people that are making the most money, to be quite honest with you.’ I don’t like saying that, but, ‘How do we trim the fat?’ And it just so happened that I was some of that fat. It’s business decisions. Vince and I spoke after that via text, and everything’s all gravy.”