Brian “Road Dogg” James is opening up for the first time about his recent WWE departure.
And it sounds like a matter of priorities catching up with him.
In early March, James exited WWE, where he had been serving as co-lead writer for Friday Night SmackDown. During a recent virtual signing appearance (see video below), the longtime wrestling veteran addressed his decision to step away from the company.
“It was moving too fast,” James said. “It was just moving too fast for me.”
He went on to explain that the demanding pace of the job ultimately conflicted with time he wanted to spend with family.
“We talked about my brothers and their grandkids and I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time with mine so, I’m gonna do more of that now.”
A pretty relatable reason, all things considered.
James also touched on his appearance in the WWE: Unreal series on Netflix, where he was shown participating in a creative meeting. When asked whether content like that reveals too much about the inner workings of the wrestling business, he admitted that it’s something veterans often wrestle with.
“As an old timer, I think we always feel that way (that it’s exposing the business too much),” James said. “The idea behind it, in my opinion, is it’s an on-ramp or an exit ramp into the actual episodic television show, and I don’t know if there’s a metric that can tell you whether that works or not.”
Later in the signing, Billy Gunn joined James, and the conversation briefly shifted to AEW. Gunn was asked how much of the production work in All Elite Wrestling actually makes it to television, prompting a quick response from his longtime DX partner.
“I don’t know the answer to that. I’m sorry,” James said with a laugh.
Gunn echoed the sentiment, adding, “I don’t know the answer to that either.”
When the question was reframed about whether they could know the answer at some point down the line, both men kept it simple.
“No.”
In related news, during the same virtual signing, Gunn revealed that his son, Colten Gunn, has finally been medically cleared for an in-ring return.
“He’s great,” Gunn said when asked about Colten. “He just got cleared yesterday. So he’s good. Thank you for asking.”
