WWE Rumors: Former IC Champion & current SmackDown Superstar "hated" by Vince McMahon

What's the story?

Past anecdotes by WWE Superstars have revealed that WWE Chairman has a short temper and gets riled by the weirdest of things.

It seems that Luke Harper, who recently asked for his release, is not in the good books of the WWE Chairman, as per Fightful.

In case you didn't know...

Harper, a former Intercontinental champion and SmackDown tag team champion, asked for his release last month, but WWE declined his request. Since then, WWE added 6 months more to his contract for missing a few months because of injury, as per Wrestling Observer.

Harper was out for months last year due to a bicep injury and then had surgery on a wrist injury too. When he returned to WWE television, his tag team partner, Rowan, was now Daniel Bryan's sidekick.

The heart of the matter

According to Fightful, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has had a "long-term issue with Luke Harper" and that McMahon "decided to hate anything he was involved in long ago".

The report states that WWE putting Harper on the shelf to ensure that he sees out his contract and unfairly treating him would have happened anyway regardless of Harper asking for his release from WWE.

The former Bludgeon Brother's contract was set to expire in November 2019, but with six months more added to his contract, he can only leave the company in May 2020.

Other reports have indicated that he was told to speak to Triple H about getting an early release, but Triple H is said to have ignored him.

What's next?

It doesn't look like there's any coming back for Harper. He won't be getting an early release like Tye Dillinger, Goldust, or Hideo Itami.