Road Dogg's WWE Severance Pay Ended At Just The Right Time

This has been a year of great dread and great rejoicing for "Road Dogg" Brian James, who found himself kicked out of WWE in January and welcomed back in August as senior vice president of live events.

In an interview with Military Times, James credited help from above in starting the next chapter of his career.

"It was all an incredible story with divine intervention for sure," he said. I was released in January 2022 and I had nine months of severance pay because I was a full-time employee for a decade."

James, who achieved wrestling superstardom in the New Age Outlaws tag team and D-Generation X, was part of the wider staff terminations that WWE announced about the changes it was bringing to the NXT brand – at the time of his layoff, he was involved in promos and character development and producing matches in NXT. But after losing his job, he soon found his finances were threatened with fraying.

"Literally the month the severance pay was due to end, Paul [Levesque, chief content officer for WWE] – or Hunter, as most people know him – called me and asked me if I wanted to come back," he continued.

James' predecessor in the senior vice president's position was Jeff Jarrett, who took the job in May but abruptly left three months later for a new role at rival AEW. But Road Dogg credited the opening of this opportunity to something greater than mere luck or an alignment of stars and planets.

"It was incredible and that's why I say it was divine intervention," he said. "I do believe it was God looking out for me even when I was worried and was not being faithful. At the same time, I was thinking, the right thing will happen. I was praying and believing. And it did happen, it was not what I was expecting."