Former WWE Star Says He Was Lied To On Multiple Occasions

Former WWE Superstar Tucker Knight (Levi Cooper) says he saw his WWE release coming.

Tucker was released back on April 15 along with other budget cuts. He recently spoke with WrestleTalk and recalled how he knew his WWE release was coming after he turned on Heavy Machinery partner Otis back in October 2020. Tucker had been sent to RAW in the WWE Draft just a few weeks earlier, splitting the team up. Tucker and Otis never wrestled each other after the turn, and he saw the writing on the wall.

"Yeah I mean of course, it's never fun to lose your job or whatever. I hadn't been in that positive of a creative position I would say since the split of Heavy Machinery," Tucker said. "So, like I said, obviously disappointed, but I think some people say that, for them, their releases were surprising or came out of nowhere – I was pretty sure I was gonna get released.

"After I hit my former partner in the head with a briefcase and then we didn't have a wrestling match, I'm like, 'Uhh, I kinda know where this thing's headed, I think I know where this thing's headed'. So that was kind of at least my thought process through that horses**t."

Tucker also recalled how he found out about the Heavy Machinery split.

"I was never told (about the split) really," Tucker said. "The first time I found out that it might happen was at TVs the day that we did the Talking Smack segment (for the Draft), I found out a couple of hours before that, 'Hey we're gonna do this Talking Smack thing where they're gonna say that like...', but it wasn't like a hard split really, because they were just putting us on different brands and they were kayfabing everybody on what was up. And then a few weeks later we do the El Gran Gordo thing with Otis in a mask pretending not to be Otis, and then I think the split happened two days after that.

"I wasn't booked that day, the day the split happened, I wasn't booked to be on the show that day. And then I got a call at like 1:00 in the afternoon saying, 'Hey, we need you to come to the arena'. I'm like, 'Okay...'. And then I wasn't even told until, I don't even know, like 3:30 or 4:00 what was gonna go down. And that plans changed a couple of times, and looking back on it, I don't know this, but I'm very sure, I feel confident that the way that it happened was so that I wouldn't ask a bunch of questions, and so that I would kinda be frazzled into doing it, which is exactly what ended up happening."

Tucker turned on Otis at Hell In a Cell 2020, causing him to lose his Money In the Bank briefcase to The Miz. Tucker noted that he was never informed of any plans, and said he feels like he was definitely lied to on multiple occasions.

"So honestly I didn't really get any answers on that (plans for Otis' Money in the Bank run) either," Tucker said. "I think that Otis getting the briefcase was a real last minute decision, I believe, I don't know that either. The truth of the matter is, no I don't really have any set answers, I didn't get any, I feel like I was definitely lied to straight to my face on multiple occasions."

Two weeks after the turn on Otis, Tucker briefly won the WWE 24/7 Title on RAW, but immediately lost it to Drew Gulak. He won it again, but then dropped it to Gran Metalik. He disappeared from WWE TV until the WrestleMania 37 go-home edition of SmackDown on FOX, where he competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He was then released from WWE the following week on April 15. Tucker noted that there were potentially some plans for him to compete on RAW Underground, which ran from August 3 until September 21 of last year.

"I do believe that there was potentially plans for me to do Raw Underground, and that was kind of the initial plans for me on the split," Tucker revealed. "And then kind of in the mix, Raw Underground became not a thing anymore, but the split still happened and then there was nothing there for me, and I believe that's a possibility. But I don't know what actually happened with that, and that's basically the information that I have and the best guesses I can make at this point."

Tucker will become a free agent after his 90-day non-compete clause with WWE expires on Wednesday, July 14.

Stay tuned for more.