By Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist
Charlie Haas is no longer a member of the ROH roster after a backstage altercation with Grizzly Redwood last Saturday at ROH's house show in North Carolina.
According to sources, tension had been building between the underneath talent and Haas for a long period of time. A lot of the underneath talent considered Haas a bully. The problem was said to have been Haas, who is used to the WWE style of doing things backstage where there’s a pecking order as opposed to the ROH way of doing things where all the guys help and motivate each other, trying to bring that WWE philosophy to the ROH locker room.
Saturday in N.C., Haas was said to have not been himself and he appeared to be intoxicated backstage.
The story is that Haas and Redwood had gotten into an argument several weeks ago. They then got into a backstage argument during intermission on Saturday and ROH booker Hunter Johnson (Delirious) yelled at both guys and Haas went crazy. Kevin Kelly tried to calm things down, but indications are that Haas turned on him as well. Management did not want Haas to wrestle, but they felt they could not stop him from going to the ring.
Several people that attended the event live said they could hear the commotion going on backstage right before Haas was set to come out and wrestle Jeff Neal after intermission. Haas came out for his match and announced his retirement. According to sources, management turned off his mic, but Haas could still be heard taking shots at Johnson and Kelly. Haas ended up changing the finish of his match and lost to Neal. Live reports coming out of the event indicated that Haas was crying during the match and appeared to be intoxicated.
After the match, Haas tried to cut another promo, but management refused to give him a mic. Haas then shouted his promo without a mic and announced his match this weekend on ROH’s “Supercard of Honor” iPPV was off and took shots at Kelly and Delirious before leaving the ring.
According to one source, a lot of the wrestlers are disappointed in Haas’s actions. Redwood is a popular figure backstage and it was said to have made Haas look bad for allegedly bullying someone much smaller than him. Another source also noted that Haas was likely fired before going out in front of the fans and making a “retirement speech” in order to save face.
According to Chris Shore of Prowrestling.Net, Haas changed clothes and left the building quickly in an agitated state. Shore also noted the situation was addressed with the locker room after the show was over.