UPDATE: Arturo Ruas, Curt Stallion, MMA Four Horsewomen member Marina Shafir, and Tyler Breeze have now also been released by WWE, making the NXT roster that little bit smaller.
It's been confirmed this evening that WWE has released Ariya Daivari, Fandango, Tony Nese, and Ever-Rise (Chase Parker and Matt Martel). Despite the company being in the midst of its most profitable year, they continue to release Superstars from their contracts in so-called "budget cuts."
This time, it was the NXT roster's turn to be thinned out.
Fandango signed with WWE in 2006 and after a hit-and-miss main roster run, returned to NXT alongside Tyler Breeze. After taking on the role of a dancer and fashion cop on RAW and SmackDown, he's made a clear effort to repackage himself and even won the NXT Tag Team Championships alongside Breeze. His last match was on June 15.
Nese most frequently appears on 205 Live and was last seen teaming up with Ariya Daivari on the June 8 episode. He signed with WWE in 2016 and later won the Cruiserweight title. Daivari signed that same year and will have one final match for WWE during tonight's 205 Live (the bout was taped on Tuesday).
Ever-Rise's release is definitely a shocker, especially as WWE just gave them their own YouTube show. Once known as 3.0, they signed with WWE in 2016 too, and last wrestled on Tuesday's NXT.
Here are the first few reactions: