Ex-WWE Star Didn’t Leave Over Personal Controversy Says Road Dogg

Former WWE star Lars Sullivan left WWE after offensive comments made online came to light but Road Dogg believes that’s not why he was released from the company.

Lars Sullivan made his name on the NXT brand before having two hastily abandoned runs on the WWE main roster. Popularity for the star collapsed when his past caught up with him and highly offensive past comments made on a bodybuilding forum came to light but WWE still persisted in trying to make Sullivan a star.

Ultimately, things did not pan out and three months after his final match in the company, Sullivan was released from his contract in January 2021.

Speaking on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, WWE executive Road Dogg gave his thoughts on Lars Sullivan and said he could have seen Sullivan one day defeating Brock Lesnar:

This guy had a legitimate look and athleticism and strength and the whole deal. So it was not just he’s Vince McMahon’s kind of guy. This is what kind of guy people in the world would buy beating Brock Lesnar, I’ll throw that at you. So that’s the kind of vision that Vince had, like who is the next beast? Who is the next guy that you could bring in anytime?

This cat was athletic he was learning. Good dude too, respectful dude. I never had any issues with him, I always was super impressed by him.

Road Dogg Believes Anxiety Stopped Lars Sullivan’s WWE Rise

As far as what caused Lars Sullivan’s WWE career to come crashing to an end, Road Dogg doesn’t believe it was his checkered history but rather his own anxieties:

I think it was more than that because [his issues were] not so salacious at all. He had real personal issues with anxiety and stuff. And so I think truth be told I think his anxieties and stuff is what really did it because what are you going to do today? You’re going to make fun of him for what he did in the past? Why? Why are you making fun of that?

Everybody’s attacking him and the truth be told, it’s those same attackers that preach all you know, Hare Krishna and everybody get along, but you son of a gun, you can’t do that. Whatever. I mean, we all have skeletons in our closets. That’s for dang sure. I just think it was his internal stuff that was more an issue than that external stuff. Whenever you live in a glass house you do not throw rocks, man. And we all do it we just all don’t admit it.

Sulivan’s WWE exit came four months before that of another NXT star of the time, Velveteen Dream. Velveteen Dream had been accused of serious sexual misconduct prior to his release and the former NXT North American Champion was later arrested twice in the space of a few days in 2022.

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