from Wade Keller and www.pwtorch.com in a special Torch Talk interview:
This excerpt of the interview may be reprinted elsewhere with the following information included verbatim: “The following statement by Shawn Daivari regarding his WWE release is excerpted from a “Torch Talk” interview conducted Tuesday, Oct. 17. An extended version is available at www.PWTorch.com.” Thank you.
Wade Keller: Let’s begin with an explanation of your departure from WWE. We should say that WWE.com simply reported today that they came to terms with you on a release and didn’t provide any other details. Is this something you initiated or they initiated?
Shawn Daivari: It’s actually been about four or five months in the process. My contract is actually running up in February 2008. Usually, they like to get guys re-signed nine months to a year out before their deal is up. They came back to me with a new contract actually while I was on Smackdown a while ago. They handed it to me and told me to look it over, sign it, and get to back to us whenever. So, I looked it over and it was still a while out, so there was no urgency on it. There was no immediate intention from me to sign it because we still had a good nine months to a year until my deal was up.
In that mean time, I got a phone call from the office wondering why I hadn’t signed it. They said, “What can we do to make things better?” I told them some of the things I would like to do at the time on Smackdown. There were a lot of shows I wasn’t on and a lot of the times, they had to combine the Smackdown and ECW house shows. So there’s only room for so many matches on a show, so sometimes guys will get rotated in and out. You might be on for three weeks; off for three weeks. That was something I told them I wasn’t too crazy about. I’m kind of a crazy guy when I’m at home. I need to be on the road pretty much full time for my own sanity and I wasn’t getting a lot of that.
Fast forward a few months later – I was drafted to Raw and things got significantly better. Right away, I was working on all the shows, all the international tours, and I was pretty much working every show Raw had. So, we started talking about re-doing my contract. They said, “We gave you what you wanted. You’re able to do more shows and this and that. Where do we land on the contract?” I told them a couple things I was looking for and looking to do – more so creatively than anything [else]. It had nothing to do with legal issues or numbers. They were very generous and met me with everything I was looking for financially. It was just a few decisions creatively that we disagreed on, or there was something they couldn’t guarantee me in writing because, obviously, creative is nothing you can put in your contract as to who you’re going to work with and for how long, etcetera.
Bottom line, it came down to we couldn’t come to a creative conclusion that worked for everybody. Over the course of the last four weeks, I had individual meetings with John Laurinaitis, Vince McMahon, and Stephanie McMahon. It was something that came out a lot more professional than I thought it would. Just between the three of us, we all decided that going forward, right now is probably not the best time for me. I asked if they would be offended or upset at all if I got a release early from my contract without finishing out the terms. They were actually surprisingly super cool with it. There was no hard feelings; no one upset with it. Even Vince and Stephanie said they appreciated me being up front with him instead of just waiting this thing out, letting it run its course and run its course, then finally saying, “No, I’m no going to re-sign.” I just told them straight out that it would be better if I seek my fortunes elsewhere and surprisingly, they were all real cool with it.
*****Booker T talks to www.pwtorch.com with more details available at the site*****
I want to address something that has been on my mind for quite some time now in regards to my recent suspension from WWE. I want to state for the record that I was not taking any illegal substance, or anything outside of my physician’s care, and that the suspension was unwarranted. However, rather than fight the suspension or publicly voice my discontent, I used this recent hiatus to rest, work with the P.W.A.,(Professional Wrestling Alliance-based in his home town of Houston, Texas) and reflect on the direction of my career as a professional wrestler. I also, for the record, have never at any time ordered anything from “Signature Pharmacy.” This allegation is upsetting, and the careless and slanderous reporting of this matter is currently being addressed by my legal counsel.
I would like to also address any possible rumors or misinformation regarding our release from WWE. I had been unhappy for quite some time with the direction that the Company was going in. In fact, I asked for my release back in July for that very reason. However, after further contemplation, I decided to continue on with WWE because of my passion for this industry and my desire to entertain the fans. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that my unhappiness with my work environment was beginning to take a great toll on other aspects of my life. I knew that it was time to make some extremely tough decisions. Therefore, in the interest of my mental, physical, and spiritual well being, I along with my wife, asked for our release from World Wrestling Entertainment for the second time within months. We were graciously granted our release and we have since amicably parted ways. While the business relationship between ourselves and the WWE has ended, we will continue to be involved in Professional Wrestling. We hope that our loyal fans will follow us as we make this transition.
Shawn Daivari’s interview with Wade Keller is one of the best I have ever heard. In some ways Daivari is amazing. I would have never believed it but he is only 23 years. He’s not that big size-wise but he was involved in many major WWE programs and storylines. Shawn Daivari has done a ton in the business to be only 23 years old.
Check out the 15 interview for FREE at http://www.pwtorch.com