WWE spent Friday clearing out NXT. Ten names are now reported gone, and the headline departure is Jasper Troy, who won the first season of WWE LFG and held the Speed Championship. Fightful and PWInsider tracked the list as it grew through the afternoon and evening.
Troy responded with two words on X: "30 Days." That's the clock ticking on his non-compete.
The full reported list:
- Jasper Troy — Speed Champion, LFG season one winner (signed 2022)
- Wendy Choo — former EVOLVE Women's Champion (2019)
- Zena Sterling — LFG participant (2023)
- Adriana Rizzo — EVOLVE interviewer (2022)
- PJ Vasa and Braxton Cole — EVOLVE competitors (both 2025)
- Anya Rune — WWE ID talent (March 2026)
- Gary Wilson — referee (2022)
- Ellen Akesson (May 2026) and Marcus Brown (March 2026) — neither had competed on TV
Main roster talent isn't believed to be affected.
Nothing is official yet. WWE hasn't announced any releases, and until the company confirms them or the wrestlers speak for themselves, this is a report.
Troy won the first season of WWE LFG, the A&E competition series built to find and sign new talent, beating out a field the company had spent an entire season promoting. Winning it was supposed to be the start of something.
He also held the WWE Speed Championship, the title contested in the short-form matches WWE built for social platforms. At 6-foot-7, he was the kind of physical presence NXT usually finds a way to keep around.
Roster trims at this level are routine, particularly in the stretch after a major NXT event when the developmental brand resets its plans. NXT ran Heatwave on August 30th, and the fallout from a show like that usually decides who has a spot on the next set of TV tapings.
Releasing the winner of your own televised recruitment show barely a year after crowning him is a strange look, regardless of the internal reason for it.
The Speed Championship adds to the strangeness... The title exists to give WWE quick, shareable matches for social feeds, and Troy's size made him an obvious fit for a format where you've got about three minutes to make an impression. Losing the guy built for that lane raises an obvious question about where the belt goes next, and NXT hasn't said.
The non-compete is what's important for those on the list, and Troy's post puts his at 30 days rather than the 90 that developmental deals have often carried. On that clock he's free in early October, which gives AEW, TNA, New Japan and the independents a much earlier shot at him than a December date would. Several NXT names released in earlier waves have turned up in TNA, which has an active working relationship with WWE.
Were you expecting Jasper Troy to get a longer run than this?
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