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Shane Helms Discusses Being Furloughed by WWE, Vince McMahon, Possibly Returning to WWE, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 17th April 2020
TJR Wrestling

This past Wednesday will be one that will not be soon forgotten in the WWE. Due to the current health crisis, WWE was forced to release or furlough hundreds of their employees. One of the employees who was furloughed was WWE producer Shane Helms. Helms recently sat down with Busted Open Radio and gave his thoughts on what went down.

“I completely understand. Nobody is buying tickets, no live events, I understand cutting costs. We have to, as people, prepare for life once we get over this. I was being paid to sit at home and do nothing. That can only last so long. Do I wish it was different? Of course. I really loved that job. I would review scripts and give feedback, but other than that, there’s really a lot that I wasn’t able to do. Most of the producers they kept are the ones that live there and don’t have to travel.”

Helms believes that there is a good chance that he will once again work for WWE once this whole thing is over.

“I believe there is and they told me that there was. We’ll just have to see until it actually happens. That’s my hope. I did some good things with them while I was there. The whole ‘Winner Takes All’ at WrestleMania 35 was my idea. I had some good stuff that I was doing. I’m personally very concerned that this whole thing lasts a lot longer than what we’re being led to believe, as far as ticket paying audience being allowed back in buildings.”

Helms holds no grudges against Vince McMahon, stating that he completely understands why he made the decision he made.

“Vince is the easy guy to go at, but he runs a huge corporation, and I would not want to be in his shoes. There isn’t a day in my life where I would want the responsibility of what Vince has to deal with. Leadership has a price and winning has a price, to quote Michael Jordan. You have to answer to, especially in a publicly traded company, you have to answer to shareholders and all this type of thing. Every decision he makes has a million dollar price tag on it. Everything. Can you even imagine having to deal with that on a constantly daily basis? That every decision you make is going to effect people’s lives and have million dollars behind it. It’s very difficult, so I understand people going after him, he’s the biggest name, so why wouldn’t they?”

“I just hope that fans understand, I don’t think it was him behind the desk being maniacally evil. It was a tough decision. I don’t think he enjoyed making it. Vince loves being able to pay people. He loves putting on this product. This industry exists because of some of the decisions he made. So like I said, I understand where they are coming from, but this is just a decision he had to make and like I said, I don’t think he wanted to make it.”

Finally Helms wants to encourage everybody to stay positive, and try to look at the bright side.

“I want to encourage people to be positive. I know it’s hard in this particular circumstances that we’re dealing with. I really liked Drake Maverick’s message yesterday. He’s a really passionate kid, very young, so I understand all the emotions that people are having. Just try to look at the bright side. And like I said in one of my initial messages, I’m in a blessed circumstance and I recognize that and I recognize that there’s a lot of other people in harder and more difficult circumstances than I’m living in. I’m definitely sad about this, I don’t want anyone to think I’m not. Something I really love got taken away from me, and if you love something, it’s going to effect you, but I’m going to remain positive and I just hope everyone else finds a way to stay positive too.”

Thank you to Fightful and 411mania for transcribing the quotes.

Matt’s Musings: It’s nice to see someone decide to not completely bash WWE once they leave the company, but it may just be temporary for him. Although these comments may have completely ruined Helms chance of ever getting on Chris Jericho’s Podcast.