Former NXT Tag Team Champion Danny Burch was fired by WWE after spending over a decade in their NXT Promotion.
The English star struggled in his early years but excelled when partnered with fellow grappler Oney Lorgan. The pair combined their technical, hard-hitting style to become one of the most feared teams in the division.
Burch and Lorcan became NXT Tag Team Champions in 2020, when Burch pinned Tyler Breeze during their title match against Breezango. This was the only title either man held in the WWE and was the pinnacle of Burch’s storied career.
Why Did WWE Fire Danny Burch?
Danny Burch was revealed to have been fired due to WWE’s changing philosophy regarding talent, Dave Meltzer revealed.
He revealed that while he did great in WWE as the tag team partner of Oney Lorcan, WWE were looking to move away from the Englishman’s style of wrestling for the time being.
The former NXT Tag Team Champion was seen more as a legitimate wrestler and less of a “sports-entertainment” style of performer that McMahon likes. He had no future on the main roster and since the defeat to AEW in the ratings way, Vince no longer had the patience to prop up the “Super-Indie” version of NXT.
“Thatcher and Burch’s days were known to be numbered because of the company’s change in philosophy on talent. Both were good wrestlers, and Thatcher was very unique in his role as Toothless Timmy, the buddy of Ciampa doing a shooter/hooker/submission expert gimmick.
But neither were people the company was interested in for the main roster and when the emphasis of NXT changed from being a third brand built on good matches, more serious storylines and more of a sports feel and developmental, to pure developmental, good wrestlers who weren’t thought to have main roster charisma weren’t going to be kept around.”
Dave Meltzer on why Timothy Thatcher was fired by WWE
NXT was moving away from it’s plan of hoarding the best talents on the indies and instead focusing more on homegrown talent.
The company previously found great heights on the backs of stars like Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura and Adam Cole. They had some of the best wrestlers in the world, with WWE fans tuning in to see some of the top stars from across the globe.
However, after the “Wednesday Night Wars” against AEW ended in embarrassment, Vince McMahon gutted NXT and started the new NXT 2.0. This involved focusing on original talent who had not wrestled outside the company and building them up in the WWE image.
Danny Burch was one of the victims of these cuts. Other big releases by WWE at the time included Timothy Thatcher, Road Dogg, Scott Armstrong and William Regal – Regal has since returned to the WWE when Triple H took over as the head of creative in WWE.
