Well,  unfortunately I’m not coming to you with happy news to end the week in WWE but as reported by f4wonline.com earlier today, “Monty “Kip” Sopp, better known as Billy Gunn, was fired today as a trainer by WWE due to testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone in a powerlifting meet from July 25.”According to the report, “Sopp’s drug test  came up with a 37-1 testosterone/epitestosterone ratio, well over the 4-1 limit, and he was suspended from powerlifting for four years.”

At 52 years of age, it is unlikely that Sopp will be able t compete in powerlifting again.  This is obviously unfortunate as Sopp had been working both an agent and a trainer down in NXT over the past few years.  With Sopp being chosen to be a trainer on the most recent season of Tough Enough, coupled with how prominently he’s featured on Breaking Ground (the new docuseries on the WWE Network), it would be reasonable to assume that Sopp was one of the more trusted people down at the performance center and within WWE auspices.

Sopp had one of the more accomplished careers as a member of WWE, and member of D-Generation X during the Attitude Era, as a former 2 time hardcore champion, a former king of the ring winner, a former intercontinental champion and a former (unprecedented) 11 time WWE Hardcore champion.  Sopp even had a run with the tag titles as a member of the New Age Outlaws as most recently as 2013 in a run that culminated in a six man tag with Corporate Kane against the Shield at WrestleMania 30.

As of this writing, Sopp is still listed on the superstars section of WWE.com and no official statement has been released by WWE.  As mentioned earlier, Sopp had been featured time to time of the new Breaking Ground series on the WWE Network, so it will be interesting to see if he is edited out of any further material that’s been taped for that series moving forward.  It should be noted that while Sopp did fail that test for powerlifting back on July 25th, WWE was not made aware of it until very recently. You really have to give WWE a lot of credit for releasing Sopp immediately upon this being discovered and showing zero tolerance amongst their trainers as it pertains to PEDs.  At the end of the day, Sopp is training the future of WWE down in NXT and should be a role model for these trainees.  It would be setting a bad example to keep Sopp on as a trainer, despite his accomplishments, so WWE’s hands were tied in that regard.

Hopefully, if this is an issue in which Sopp has a problem, and I’m not one to judge, he’s able to get the help that needs to overcome the problem.  If any further details are released on this matter, we’ll have them for you right here on thedailyspotlight.com