James Mitchell Update, Was Tony Atlas Hired Because Of His Race?

By • July 18, 2008

- James Mitchell has gone on record saying he was released from TNA on good terms and they simply had nothing creative for him, so no reason to pay him a check. The door is always open for future appearances when they need him. There are some murmurs that certain people just didn’t like him on a personal level, found him annoying and that he brought the wrong kind of mentality to the backstage area.

-Many people backstage are confused by the recent hiring of Tony Atlas as Mark Henry’s manager. First and foremost managers are there to be “mouth pieces” for their wrestler and some might argue that Tony Atlas was renowned for his lack of speaking and promo ability. What’s more confusing is that he was originally being touted for a similar role with Bobby Lashley but the idea was dropped when he rubbed some people up the wrong way.

You may remember a story we reported last year where he was unaware that CM Punk was a regular wrestler on ECW and had a go at him for taping his wrists like he does, which is an old school rule in wrestling. He was seen as an old fool who was trying to use power he didn’t have.

People are also questioning his sanity as at the Wrestlemania 22 Hall Of Fame segment, when the pyro went off he ran backstage and hid in fear like a child. He had to be persuaded to come out for the segment and was said to be very nervous, almost like he was having a panic attack.

This leads to some people playing the race card and saying he was only brought in to counteract the Michael Hayes situation.

Either way he has is buddies backstage and by all accounts is a generally nice guy, who actually does need a pay day and deserves one for the work he put in during his career.