Former WWE Superstar Tye Dillinger was recently a guest on “E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness.” Dillinger talked about several professional wrestling topics; such as where he felt things went wrong during his WWE run, speaking with Triple H, making the decision to ask for his release, and more.
Check out the highlights below:
Speaking with Triple H:
I had a talk with Hunter, probably about seven weeks before I made my announcement to leave, and I asked him some personal questions. Some questions that I needed answers to. And to his credit, he answered them. And whether or not they were answers I wanted to hear or not, I heard them. And like you said, sometimes it just doesn’t happen the way you might hope it happens, or the way it might seem it will happen.
It’s just one of those things in this industry, that’s ever-changing, that’s always evolving, that has so much talent, and only a limited time on television and space, sometimes good things can fall through the cracks. And that’s just something you have to be aware of when you sign up for this.
His injury layoff giving him time to think things over:
I got injured. The decision had been in my mind, it was probably a six-month process. I got injured in October, and I believe I got injured on a Monday Night, but the next day on TV I was going to ask for a couple of weeks off. Just to step back, clear my thoughts, step back for a second and figure out what I really truly wanted to do. Well that night at a live event I ended up smashing my thumb to the point where I had to have tins put in my hands. So that gave me three months to think about everything I wanted to do. I was granted the extra time to really sit back. I go, ‘Okay, this is the moment to, not just make impulsive decisions, I can take a lot of time to think about what I want.’
So, I changed my look, I changed my gear, I pitched have a dozen ideas – and, Adam, you and I have had conversations at televisions as well, and one of your biggest things was, ‘You got to get in there and you got to talk to the boss.’ And I did that. I might have put my foot in my mouth while doing so, but I feel like I said what I needed to say and I still stand by what I said to this day. But I checked the boxes while I was out. My own personal boxes. And that was the stepping stone along the way to make sure I was going to make the right call. And I did feel that, when I came back, things were going to be different. They were not. I had a conversation, I was told to wait.
Give it a few weeks for things to simmer a little bit. Weeks passed, and I’d just sit. It put me in a bad place because it was making – I was suffering. I wasn’t excited anymore. I would be behind a curtain instead of being anxious and excited and nervous, that feeling you get when your legs are really heavy and your heart is pounding, ‘Oh man, oh man, oh man.’ It wasn’t like that anymore. I was dreading it. I was back there going, ‘Oh man please, just respond, make noise, please cheer, please -‘ Like, I was – I was praying, essentially, that they would acknowledge that I still existed. I thought they didn’t at the time, I felt like
I was spirling. And when the performance is suffering and you’re not giving it your all, they see it, they feel it, and that’s not fair to them. I couldn’t place myself in that position anymore. I would take it home with me. Instead of enjoying the two days I had off, I was dreading the third day when I had to leave already, the second I get home. I was probably late in leaving actually.
When he knew he was going to ask for his release:
It was the day of my birthday, February 19th. Probably about a month before I had made the decision that I was going to go into television that day, and do it on that day. But that bounced back and forth leading up. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. I didn’t really ask too many people’s opinions about it. I didn’t want to be tilted either way, I wanted this to be all on me. My family had no idea, my mother had no idea, my wife knew. She knew what I was going to do. She just didn’t know that I was going to do it on that day as well.
But I went in and, as you guys know, right now is a very good time for wrestling overall. This was at a time where I walked into talent relations at the time and said that I needed to go. They said, ‘Well, we’re about to offer you a pretty substantial raise. I just kind of put my hands up.’ Now, I am by no means a millionaire, I’m not even close. I have been very lucky. I have everything I could possibly need, and I wouldn’t have that without WWE. But, for me personally, it wasn’t about the money. I didn’t even let him get the offer out of his mouth. Later I found out what it was, a couple of weeks later, but I just said, it wouldn’t change anything tomorrow morning when I wake up. I’ll still feel this same way I do right now and that I have for the last six months. They said ‘Okay, we’re gonna run it up the ladder.’
And I gave them the whole day to do so. I messaged Hunter, I said ‘please reach out to talent relations when you can.’ And to Hunter’s credit, every time I reached out to him, every time I’ve asked if he has a minute to talk, he has always given me the time of day. Every time. He’s always responded to every call, every text, and any moment I pull him aside at TV. He has been more than gracious with his time. I knew he did reach out, but I didn’t hear anything by the end of the day. And, one thing that kept going through my mind – I couldn’t let them fire me twice, so that’s why I put out that statement. I believe it was midnight later that evening.
Yeah. To type it out, speaking it would take maybe three minutes, to text it out that’s maybe 30 or 45 minutes. My hands shaking, my eyes welling up because I’m lying there on the hotel bed late at night, don’t know if this is the right thing, the wrong thing, the dumbest thing I’m ever going to do in my life. It had to be done.
Read More: WWE Grants Tye Dillinger’s Release, Superstar Responds
