Rob Conway believes his memorable on-screen firing by Vince McMahon ultimately hurt his career because fans thought he had legitimately been released months before he actually left WWE.
Conway lost to Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy in just 21 seconds on the January 1, 2007 episode of Raw after declaring that he would quit the brand if he lost another match. McMahon then appeared, refused to allow Conway to quit and instead fired him.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Conway revealed that the unusually short match was partly the result of a legitimate medical issue. He had recently undergone surgery for a deviated septum after breaking his nose and wasn’t cleared to compete. “I was like, man, I can’t get hit in the face. I wasn’t in great shape. I was still taking pain meds,” Conway said. “So then the match kept getting shorter and shorter, and I was like, how about I just start off on him and shoot him in, and he does a sunset flip out of the corner. One, two, three.”
According to Conway, the match itself was never particularly important. Its purpose was to get to McMahon firing him as part of the early groundwork for WWE’s eventual WrestleMania 23 storyline involving Donald Trump. “Originally the match was supposed to be just like a normal three or four or five minute match. The match was irrelevant. It was the promo, and to get to Vince,” he said. “We were doing everything we could just to get from I’ll quit Raw to losing, to Vince saying you can’t quit, you’re fired.”
The original plan wasn’t for Conway to leave WWE. Instead, he says he was preparing to move to SmackDown and reunite with former La Resistance partner Sylvain Grenier. “I was already getting gear made to wrestle on SmackDown with Sylvain,” Conway said. “They had to keep me off TV till after WrestleMania, because the whole you’re fired was to spark the angle between Vince and Donald Trump. So if I showed up two weeks later, he didn’t do a very good job of firing me.”
However, WrestleMania 23 passed without Conway receiving the expected call. “After WrestleMania, then I was supposed to start on SmackDown with Sylvain, because together we were gold. Separately, they didn’t really do that much with either one of us,” he said.
Conway’s WWE contract had rolled over in January, meaning he continued receiving his full salary while sitting at home. “I was thinking they would either do something with me or let me go,” Conway said. “It’s not like if they did let me go, six months later I wouldn’t be like, yeah, I’ll come back. Who’s going to say no to that kind of money?”
WWE eventually announced Conway’s release on May 11, 2007, with Conway saying he continued to be paid until August. By then, however, he believes the lengthy absence had damaged his value because many fans assumed the storyline firing had been legitimate. “It kind of hurt my stock, so to speak, because most people get fired, released, and then they have 90 days and you can start on TV,” he said. “Well, I was off TV until I got released, I think in May, and they kept paying me until August. But I’d been off TV for nine months. People thought I got fired on TV.”
Conway summed up the unusual situation with a joke. “I’m the only guy who got fired on TV and really seemingly got fired,” Conway said.
The storyline ultimately led into the Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania 23, where McMahon and Trump each backed a wrestler with their hair at stake. Bobby Lashley defeated Umaga, resulting in McMahon having his head shaved inside the ring.
Conway also reflected on working directly with McMahon, explaining that he viewed him very differently depending on whether they were performing or interacting backstage. “In the ring, it’s just character-driven. He’s just another segment,” he said. “Backstage, on the other hand, he’s an intimidating guy, because he kind of holds your future. It’s one of those deals where if he’s like, how you doing, you’re like, how do you want me to be doing?”
Conway believes that sense of power was intensified by WWE’s position in the wrestling industry at the time, when performers had far fewer major alternatives available to them. “He had so much power. You couldn’t just go to WCW, and TNA wasn’t really, it was on the map, but it wasn’t the way it got to be. It’s certainly not like what AEW is now,” Conway said. “The guys have it so much better now. The more competition, the more money guys can make, the more opportunity there is for more people.”
