WWE Rumors: Hall Of Famer Reportedly Released After Almost Four Decades With Company
UPDATE: On Tuesday morning, Gerald Brisco clarified his status with WWE on Twitter, explaining that he had actually been furloughed and suggesting that someone may have leaked the “wrong news,” as cited by WrestlingNews.co. The tweet, however, has already been deleted, as of this writing.
Original story below:
Aside from all the familiar names who were among the employees WWE released on April 15 due to coronavirus-related budget cuts, it appears that one longtime backstage mainstay — producer Gerald Brisco — was also let go by the company around the same time.
In a report published Monday on F4WOnline.com, Dave Meltzer wrote that the 73-year-old Brisco was among the individuals who were released close to two weeks ago by WWE, ending a stint with the company that started way back in 1984. This stint, as further explained, started when Brisco and his older brother Jack were among the “key figures” who convinced most of Georgia Championship Wrestling’s shareholders to secretly sell their stock to WWE chairman Vince McMahon.
“The move gave McMahon both wrestling time slots on TBS in 1984-85, meaning during a key period in history, he controlled every highly-rated national cable slot,” Meltzer added.
After a lengthy in-ring career that lasted until the early 1980s, Brisco became one of McMahon’s “most trusted” advisers, mainly working as a backstage producer and talent scout. With McMahon playing an evil on-air authority figure during WWE’s Attitude Era in the late 1990s, Brisco, together with fellow Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, played key onscreen roles as the “Stooges,” occasionally taking part in matches but mostly assisting the “Mr. McMahon” character in his devious schemes.
Although the Stooges returned to their usual backstage roles at the start of the 21st century, both Brisco and Patterson returned on occasion for TV appearances in the years that followed. Most recently, the two Hall of Famers took turns holding the 24/7 Championship on last summer’s “Raw Reunion” episode of Monday Night Raw, with Brisco memorably winning the title from Patterson before he quickly lost it to former WWE Divas Champion Kelly Kelly.
As a talent scout, Brisco was responsible for discovering future WWE Champion Brock Lesnar when he was still a junior at the University of Minnesota, thus preparing him for what would become a successful pro wrestling career. According to Meltzer, the former Oklahoma State wrestling legend also played a big part in convincing a number of other top amateur wrestlers to sign with the promotion.
In his report, Meltzer didn’t mention any further specifics on the circumstances behind, or the timing of Brisco’s release. However, as Wrestling Inc. noted, Brisco took to Twitter on April 15 to express his sympathy for all the employees who were let go on that day. The publication also shared another tweet he posted on April 19, where he advised wrestlers to use their time in quarantine to study videos of “the greats,” work on improving their promo skills, and stay in shape.
