Shane Haste (formerly Shane Thorne & SLAPJACK in WWE) recalls staying with WWE after being told they "had something for him."
In March 2016, Haste and his then tag team partner Mikey Nicholls were signed by WWE and began appearing on NXT. They were promptly rebranded as Shane Thorne and Nick Miller, respectively, while their team name of The Mighty Don't Kneel was changed to TM-61.
Less than two years later in December 2018, Nicholls asked for and was granted his release from the company. Haste, however, made the decision to remain with WWE.
During a recent appearance on the Two Man Power Trip podcast, Haste explained why he chose to stay, admitting that, at first, he did intend on leaving.
"I was led to believe I had a good singles run coming. I said, 'I think I'm going to leave' too and they told me don't, 'they have something for you.' So, I stayed. We had been teaming for a long time, so I wanted to see for myself as well. Very open. 'Oh, I'll trust that.' I had ideas and nothing ended up...it's very much a thing. You can pitch ideas all day, but I feel they want their own ideas. So I pitched ideas. The breakout tournament and storyline, that came out of complete left field. You see people, their ideas get picked up, but you can also wait for an idea come to you and they work around that. I got a lot of freedom with that storyline. 'How do you want me to be?' 'Be angry.' None of the promos were scripted, just, 'whatever you want to say, go say it,'" he said.
After some time as a remember of RETRIBUTION and then not being able to get on SmackDown, Haste was released by WWE in November 2021.
Elsewhere during the interview, Thorne said they once pitched Vince McMahon as the leader of RETRIBUTION. Click here to learn more.
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