New details have emerged regarding the departure of WWE Hall of Famer Brian “Road Dogg” James from the company.
Road Dogg recently parted ways with WWE ahead of this week’s episode of SmackDown, where he had been serving as co-head writer for the brand. According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that James’s exit came shortly after his annual performance review with the company.
“James got his annual review,” Meltzer wrote. “The belief is that he wasn’t happy with it and left. He may say he left over something else and only he would know exactly why he did so. But it was his decision, and it came after his annual review.”
The report added that there had been signs that the situation had been developing for some time.
“One person close to the situation said that it has been brewing,” Meltzer noted.
WWE Blocked Road Dogg From Making Scheduled Outside Appeance
Dave Meltzer also reported that Road Dogg had originally been scheduled to appear at a wrestling convention later this month, which WWE had initially approved. However, that approval was later rescinded, forcing him to cancel the appearance.
According to Meltzer, when James withdrew from the convention booking, he indicated that the issue would no longer be a problem in the near future.
James has held multiple backstage roles in WWE over the years, including previous stints as SmackDown’s lead writer, before returning to the creative team in recent years under the leadership of Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
You can personalise your Google settings to see more stories from slamwrestling.net when you search for wrestling news.
Google’s Preferred Sources feature lets you choose the websites you trust most. Once added, Google is more likely to show SLAM in Top Stories and the “from your sources” section.
- Click this link to take you directly to Google’s “Source preferences” page.
- Sign into your Google account.
- Search for slamwrestling.net.
- Tick the box next to Slam Wrestling.
Adding SLAM as a Preferred Source helps you see more of our news, features, and exclusive coverage in Google search.



