Stacy Carter, aka ‘The Kat’ was released from the WWE in 2001, Jim Ross has broken down his thoughts on Carter and how things went down.
The former WWF Women’s Champion was released in 2001, her exit also sparked Jerry Lawler to quit as an act of protest. The King and Carter were married at the time, WWE firing Stacy after several writers complained about her attitude backstage .
Jim Ross was speaking about Stacy Carter’s WWE release during a recent Grilling JR episode.
Good Ol’ JR recalls the WWE writers catching Vince McMahon when he wasn’t in the best of moods, and Vince was quick to act on the poor feedback – instructing JR to give Carter the bad news.
She was a sweetheart, I thought, but she apparently, based on what the writers said, she was too hard to work with. So, they caught Vince on a day when he was not in a really great mood, apparently.
I got called in Vince’s office, ‘I want her gone…What? ‘I want her gone today.’ So, you know, that’s where your job becomes very challenging.
Jim Ross explains the tough relationship he had with Vince that meant, as much as he didn’t agree with firing Stacy Carter based on what the writers had said, he would still go through with it – challenging Vince’s decisions is “stupid”.
Look, there is no way I would have fired her, no matter what the writers said. Without talking to the writers and telling what did she do, that you believe merits her dismissal. Explain to me so that I know. I didn’t do that because I had no room to do that.
I asked, ‘Can I do some checking around?’ ‘No, she’s gone. Well, you know, you got a decision-maker, Conrad. I would have done anything. I would have challenged Vince. Well, you’re stupid if you do that. That’s what he wanted.
In JR’s mind, Carter would have benefitted from just walking away and taking some time off, Vince forgives if given space – JR pointing to his own back/forth relationship with the WWE as proof of that.
What JR and Vince didn’t foresee was that Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler would follow Carter out the door.
I knew that if we just if we got past this day and she took some time off that it was a good chance we could bring her back. He forgives.
Look at me, I’ve been there in and out, in and out. So, I know that there is a propensity to do that by him. But, we didn’t count on – I didn’t think Vince did either – that Lawler was going to support her and leave. And, that was a little of a different twist to the plot.
From all account, Stacy Carter was a very astute performer, Jim Ross backing that up by praising her product knowledge. This however, would be her downfall in the WWE. Her confidence to question decisions, call out when things weren’t to her liking, all resulted in the crew losing patience with her.
The thing about Stacy, unlike a lot of women, Stacy had product knowledge. She lived the business since she was a teenager being Lawler’s girlfriend and then his wife.
So, she had a little more of a knowledge and basic fundamentals, skillset as far as the psychology and understanding of the product than did a lot of the Divas. And, with that said, she would question things. Ask questions. I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do that. Well, that doesn’t make any sense. You’re stupid, whatever.
She would ask for the logic behind something she was going to do, which is, if you’re a good producer, you’ve got no problems with talent asking questions because you can explain it and sell it to them.
But in any event, they lost patience, this crew, the creative in that regard, and she was out. And Lawler was out. So, you know, he felt like he was doing the right thing, and I admire what he did.
Stacy Carter and Jerry Lawler married in 2000 but then got divorced not too long after in 2003.
Carter would leave the wrestling business for many years after her WWE release, she made her debut for Tri-State Wrestling Alliance (TWA) in June, 2010 at the TWA Homecoming event where she teamed up with former WWF Tag Team Champions, Demolition (Ax and Smash)