Eric Young refused to work under Vince McMahon again after the billionaire returned to WWE despite his involvement in a hush-money scandal in 2022.
Following his release from WWE in April 2020, Young was brought back in late 2022 along with several others after McMahon’s departure.
In January 2023, McMahon forcefully returned to WWE, and Young’s departure from the company was confirmed in April.
During a recent episode of the “Insight” podcast, Young elaborated on his decision to leave WWE after McMahon’s return to the Board of Directors.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On interrupting Vince McMahon during a meeting: “I sure did. I talked to him like I talked to anybody. I interrupted [him], and I was told to do it by people there, I went and interrupted a meeting he was in. We had a very good conversation, and he said, ‘Do you have ideas?’ I said, ‘Yep, sure do.’ Came in the next week, pitched ideas. He was very open and very complimentary [and said] ‘Thank you for bringing this in, and thank you for showing initiative.’ And then they sent Damo and Wolfe back to NXT, and then I got sent over to Raw and it got worse. I mean, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t make him mad, I didn’t have a bad match, there’s nothing I did. He just decided that I was no good at whatever it was I was doing. I wasn’t doing anything.”
On Kenny Omega not lasting eight months in WWE: “I don’t know how you came to that decision, and I’ve said this before too, I’m not the first person that he’s missed out on. Won’t be the last, right? Well, hopefully I’m one of the last. But Kenny Omega was there and didn’t last eight months, so one of the best bell-to-bell ever in the universe, and he couldn’t survive. So it’s frustrating more than anything. I’m not mad about it. I moved on, for sure with my life and very fulfilled, very happy person. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. But it’s a very disappointing thing, yeah, very disappointing.”
On his second return to WWE: “So I was employed by them for I think eight or nine months. [People don’t know this because you weren’t on TV]. Yeah, some people know, but I think the majority of the world, they don’t understand because I would never show up at TV. The truth is, I never left my house. So yeah, I was proposed a gimmick to work there with two guys and was super excited about it. Then that didn’t happen, one of them was Bray and then Bray passed away, which sucked, and is unfair in every way possible. So then it’s like, well pitch some new ideas, and then the person I worked for before forced his way back in.”
On why his second return didn’t work: “I just kind of said, there’s a lot of reasons why I didn’t want to work there at that point, but the number one reason was I just don’t want to work for a person like that. And this is long before all the other stuff would come out. But I was pretty convinced I knew who he was and how he was professionally, but more importantly for me, morally, I just can’t work for a human being like that. So I asked for my release, and was granted it. I’m not saying any of the stuff because I had to sign an NDA. So yeah, it’s a whole weird thing.”
On being pitched for an earlier iteration of The Wyatt Sicks: “I think the original idea was me, Bray and Bo as a trio. That’s what was told to me from Hunter, basically. So obviously I’m gonna jump at that. I’m friends with both of those guys. It would have been creatively just an unbelievable opportunity working there, working on the main roster, wrestling all over the world with two guys that I get along with well, and obviously a huge part of the show at that point. The Fiend and Bray coming back was one of the most popular things at that time, one of the most viewed things. They put up those viral videos, they’d be viewed within six hours by millions of people. So being part of that was very appetizing. It’s kind of not in my wheelhouse, but close enough to my wheelhouse where I would have really enjoyed it, it would have been challenging, but in a really cool way. So I was obviously very excited, and then all the stuff happened with the sale and all this other weird stuff. All of a sudden I wasn’t working for the person who hired me, and I wasn’t willing to do that. I don’t regret it, not at all. I think it’s the coolest. It’s not lost in me that I was able to walk away from money like that, stability like that, because of what I believe, beliefs of the kind of human being that I am. That’s not like 10 years ago, I don’t know if I would have been able to make that choice financially or personally or certainly not professionally. I’m in a position where I’ll be fine. I’ll figure it out. I hadn’t even talked to Scott [D’Amore] at the time, or TNA, we had zero conversations about it. I just knew I wasn’t going to work for the WWE anymore. So it’s a wild one, but the truth is it was 100% my choice. I think there’ll be a lot of people that think that’s stupid, a lot of people that won’t make that choice. But I think for me in my career, I think it’s one of the proudest things I’ve ever done.”
On how he nearly lost an ear: “I’m not great on social media, but there was all this stuff, it had to be reattached and all this stuff. It was obviously very serious. I had a huge cut on the back of my ear from a table spot I did with Frankie [Kazarian]. Totally my fault. I’m doing the Spanish Fly. I know when he does it, he kind of goes sideways a bit, kind of turns to one side. In my head he went this way, but he actually doesn’t, he goes this way, and I’m going this way, and he’s going that way, and ended up busting the table with my head. I mean, really, I probably should be dead. As soon as I hit, you can just see the blood just stream down. So the internet does what the internet does, and [says] ‘His ear got ripped off.’ Man, that sounds awesome, that sounds cool. I’m not going to correct them. I’m just going to let them say whatever they want, because the truth is whatever they say is always going to be cooler than the truth. That’s the rule, I’m never going to let truth get in the way of a good story. The story wasn’t I had to have my ear reattached. I think it was eight stitches behind my ear, but it was just bleeding non-stop because of where it was.”
