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A former WWE Superstar recently discussed his financial condition after he was released from the promotion. The name in question is Duke 'The Dumpster' Droese.
The 55-year-old was released from his WWE contract in 1996, just two years after his debut. He returned to the company for a one-off appearance in the WrestleMania X-7 Gimmick Battle Royal five years later.
In an interview with Wrestling News, Duke Droese discussed how he struggled with a 'hefty' drug problem besides being broke after he departed WWE.
"I didn't have any money or anything to show for it, so I was pretty much broke almost immediately, and I had this hefty drug problem. So I had to figure out, you know, ways and means to get money and get drugs. I started bouncing in strip clubs and sh*t like that. It was just ridiculous. Yeah, it was just bad. It was bad for a while, several years."
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Droese further detailed his experience working for WWE:
"I think the first couple years [in WWE] I barely broke even. We paid our own road expenses. Remember, we were independent contractors, so we filled out a 1099 at the end of the year and we get to claim our rental cars and hotels and food and stuff like that, anything we spent pretty much on the road as expenses, we got to write off of our taxes, but still, even that being said, I really made almost no money."
You can watch the entire interview here.
The Dumpster shared the reason behind his WWE release
In the same interview, Duke Droese also shared the details regarding his exit from the company. He revealed how his last conversation with Vince McMahon might have led to his departure.
The veteran wasn't happy about his booking and approached McMahon multiple times to discuss the way forward. However, Droese was let go right before he was supposed to travel to Memphis to work on his heel character.
"I was really frustrated, and I felt like I was ready to just leave, and then one day he just, actually, what he said first was he was going to send me to Memphis to develop as a heel. He was going to pay me $1,000 a week, which, the hilarious thing, was a lot more money than they were paying me at the time because they had me off the road most of the time, and I wasn't really booked."
He added:
"I think my response is what got me sent home. I said, 'I'm gonna need that in writing.' It looked like Vince bit a turd. He just kind of looked at me like, absolutely, but then like a week later, Jerry [Gerald] Briscoe is walking up to me in the locker room saying, 'Vince said you go on home.' I just remember going, 'It's over.' So that's how it kind of went down in a nutshell."
What are your thoughts on The Dumpster's story? Sound off in the comments section below.
