On Monday night, Rhyno lost a single’s match to Heath Slater. Unfortunately, Baron Corbin stated that the loser of the match would be fired from Raw. Slater didn’t make out much better, however, as he has now been relegated to serving as a referee. Rhyno then announced his retirement to the live audience in a segment which didn’t air on Raw.
It doesn’t appear as though Rhyno is actually fired or retired, however. His status was addressed recently on Wrestling Observer Live.
“All I can tell you is Rhyno is still booked for house shows,” Bryan Alvarez said on the show. “If he’s being fired or if he’s retiring, it’s not happening anytime soon, so that’s that.”
Heath Slater and Rhyno
Heath Slater and Rhyno were paired together not long after the brand-extension in 2016. After Rhyno defeated Slater to win a spot on the Smackdown roster, the two ended up teaming together in a tag-team tournament. Against all odds, the team was able to win the tournament and became the new Smackdown tag-team Champions.
The title win was just the 2nd non-hardcore championship win of Rhyno’s WWE tenure. He is a 3x Hardcore Champion and a former WCW US Champion (during the Alliance vs WWE angle) as well.
