More light has been shed on what led to Luke Harper requesting his release from the WWE. It appears that Vince McMahon soured on the former Intercontinental champion upon his return for two reasons, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer. The company reportedly made the decision to not use Harper as McMahon doesn’t “get” the former Wyatt family member (transcript courtesy of sescoops.com):
“The update on Harper is that Vince McMahon, in writing, told him he wouldn’t release him,” Dave Meltzer wrote. “One person close to the situation told us that (Harper) needs to get out because they made a call that they weren’t going to use him after Vince saw him in his return,” the report continued.
One of the reasons stem from Vince being concerned with Harper not being able to do a Southern accent:
“Vince said that he didn’t ‘get him’ and complained that he couldn’t even do a Southern accent (that was from them wanting him to do a Southern accent four years ago).”
This isn’t the first time McMahon has soured on Harper for not having a southern accent, as the former Intercontinental champion revealed in an interview that after his match-up with Dolph Ziggler, the Chairman yelled at him for not using a southern accent when speaking, even though Harper is originally from New York.
McMahon was also furious about a dark match between EC3 and Harper on the Smackdown after Mania, which was largely done to test Drake Maverick being paired with EC3. Vince McMahon reportedly hated the match and did not like the manager spots with Maverick and EC3.
“The creative meeting the day of the draft when it was asked about which brand Harper would be on, Vince said how the guy can’t even do a Southern accent, said the match with EC3 was bad, so they didn’t put him with either brand and that’s when he asked for his release.” Meltzer noted in the Wrestling Observer.
While it’s clear that Harper will be remaining with the company for now, there’s no word on what the future lies with the former Intercontinental champion in WWE.