— Simon Gotch, now known as Simon Grimm, recently spoke to USA Today about his recent release from WWE, which came the week after WrestleMania 33.
— Gotch indicated that WWE initiated the release by calling him up after TVs that week suggesting that his character had runs its course. Gotch said he was unhappy and so he agreed to the release.
“They brought it to me and I agreed,” he said. “It was one of those things where I was unhappy, and they basically felt like the character had run its course. I said I agreed, and they said they wanted to exercise the termination clause in my contract. I agreed with that as well and we went from there.
“This wasn’t exactly an unwanted thing on my part. I wasn’t happy, and I actually felt that was the best move. In any situation, sometimes if you see the opportunity, you take it.”
— Gotch also addressed the rumor about the incident at catering which some suspected contributed to his release. According to him, the whole situation was blown out of proportion and didn’t go down as reports indicated:
“The actual story is that it happened at WrestleMania. I was sitting in catering and the chair I was in was kinda flimsy. I go to shift in it and it just collapses underneath me. Being a ham, my immediate reaction was to demand someone pin me. ‘Someone pin me quick.’ The guy who comes over, I think he works for us. I didn’t realize he was a local technician and was not a WWE technician. He was someone who worked on the set at ‘Mania. He came to help me up and I’m like, ‘Nope, you gotta pin me. C’mon, man.’ And he’s not going along with the bit. He thinks I just fell and he’s trying to help me. I see the bit’s going nowhere so I take the chair and I just kick it off to the side, drop it like a little punt and let it lay where it lands. That was it. I saw the story online, saying that I fell in the chair and made this big scene and was yelling and screaming. No part of that is accurate.”