15-Time WWE Champion Got Release After Telling Vince McMahon They Were Overpaid

A former WWE star took an unusual approach to make sure Vince McMahon granted them their release.

After a 19-year run with the company that saw him win almost every major prize it had to offer, Nic Nemeth, better known as Dolph Ziggler, was released by WWE in September 2023.

But little did fans know at the time, Nemeth had been working to get out of his contract after realising that his slide down the card showed little sign of stopping. Despite his glittering CV, Nemeth hadn’t held a title on the main roster for two years, and his opportunities on Raw were limited to say the least.

During a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Nemeth explained how and why he took a very unusual approach to ensure his release. After coming to terms with his place in the company, Nemeth wrote an email to several members of WWE management pointing out that he was being vastly overpaid.

Interestingly, Nemeth included Vince McMahon in his mass email. At this point, McMahon had worked his way back into the company after “retiring” despite the sexual misconduct scandal surrounding him.

WWE sources repeatedly claimed that McMahon was hands-off during this period, while several reports claimed he was making his presence felt backstage and having a big impact on creative. Nemeth’s story seems to indicate that the former Chairman was much more involved than the company wanted people to believe.

“So I wrote a really, really long email to Vince [McMahon], Hunter [Triple H], Bruce [Prichard], Ed [Koskey], and maybe one other person, and it was a compliment sandwich. ‘This is the greatest thing ever. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I will never not say that you’re using me, or a role that a local would be in, but you’re paying me as the WrestleMania main eventer, this is bad for you, and this is bad for me.’

At this point, because of the timing of the company about to be purchased by someone else, that was the best bet to get out of it. Because in the past, I’m like, ‘Hey, I want out.’ They’re like, ‘Sorry, you’re signed. You’re not getting out of this.’ Okay.”

Continuing on, Nemeth said that in the end, the only person to answer his email was McMahon. After some more pushing, the former World Champion found himself on the list of stars getting released just days later.

“Yes. So I said, ‘Do me a favor. Let’s do this as soon as possible, or I’m down to talk if you want to say something else or go with some different route.’ But I go about a year and a half into the three years, or just under two years, and nobody wrote me back, except for Vince.

And he said, ‘Wow, this is incredible. This is a lot to read. I’m not sure what to do.’ And I said, ‘Vince, I will fly to Stanford tomorrow morning and we will finish this or talk about it, or find a new role, or at least let me go away for five years, something.’ He goes, ‘Give me a week to think about it.’ I said, ‘I really want to figure this out right now.’ He goes, ‘Give me one week. It’s a lot to process.’

I said, ‘Okay,’ and the next week I was on the list of people who were released. So, yeah, it worked, if they were not in the process of cutting some things to trimming the fat to be purchased by another company, I would assume that I would been in there for another year and a half or so.”

In the same interview, Nic Nemeth revealed that he tried to quit the company years earlier after his match with Goldberg at SummerSlam 2019.

Vince McMahon Court Date Set

Away from WWE, it’s been confirmed that Vince McMahon will appear in court for a deposition hearing in Stamford, Connecticut, on October 16. He had earlier been charged with reckless driving and driving too closely.

The charges relate to a multi-car accident on Route 15 in Westport back in July.

All quotes courtesy of chrisvanvliet.com