Michael Leonardi worked as a WWE writer in the mid-2000s and then returned for a short stint in 2015.
Leonardi was fired after changing a a line in a promo segment that involved R-Truth, Titus O'Neil, Mark Henry, and Neville (PAC in AEW). The original writing called for PAC to reference Martin Luther King's historic 'I Had A Dream' speech and relate it to winning the Royal Rumble.
The segment was set to take place on Martin Luther King Day.
Appearing on Our Universe Is Mental with Jimmy Jacobs, Leonardi explained the unresolved nature surrounding his fired.
"I only have one reoccurring dream, and it is about going back to WWE. It's always a similar thing. I'm going back and seeing people I know and I know that's my unresolved, whatever you want to call it. I don't know if it's trauma. It's just one of those things. I'm also doing things that I really love. I am able to live out what gives me joy and purpose in life. There are days where I love it and I am exactly where I need to be. I get to influence many people, we work with lots of schools and so many people, and it's fun. Then there are days where I'm like, 'I love storytelling and I love being in arenas and I want to go back.' It's this back-and-forth. It's this one reoccurring dream. I know exactly what it is. It's this unresolved energy and tension from being fired for a pretty stupid reason because of Vince McMahon.
"I don't know if you know why I got let go, or if people talk about it, but it was ridiculous. It was absolutely ridiculous. For so many years, I felt ashamed that I got fired. It wasn't until more recently and things coming up and being like, 'There is no reason for me to be ashamed of what happened.' I always try to say, 'What could I have done better?' I did what I was supposed to do. I did what I needed to do to protect the business."
Asked what might help resolve things, Leonardi replied, "To me, it's a conversation. It's a conversation, probably not even with Vince, but probably Hunter [Triple H]. Just somebody there that can acknowledge and understand what happened was fucked up. Somebody to be like, 'Mike, you didn't do anything wrong. You did your job. It's okay.' I'm a big boy and I've moved on and don't think about it that much, but for people to understand, in 1983, I walked out of 'Return of the Jedi' when I was four years old and I said, 'This is what I want to do with my life. I want to tell stories on television and film.' I got into wrestling with Hulkamania, then it went away for a bit, but it came back. I wanted to tell stories in wrestling, that's all I wanted to do. I got a job there, which was the most amazing thing. Then, I got a job as a writer. Getting to work at that level of the business, how many people get to do that? It was truly a blessing and an amazing thing. To have it kind of ripped away for reasons that are still hard to comprehend, that's unresolved stuff to me. There is still, 'What did you do?' There is just this unresolved energy."
Leonardi currently works as a Health and Mixed Martial Arts Entrepreneur.
Fans can learn more about his firing from WWE by clicking here.
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