Another WWE ID Prospect is gone.
Last week, the floodgates opened for various independent talents as WWE either released or opted to not renew the contracts of Kylie Rae, Stevie Turner, Wes Lee, Brayden "BJ" Ray, Drako Knox, Haze Jameson, Jamar Hampton, Jin Tala, Lance Anoa'i, Summer Sorrell, Zara Zakher, and Zayda Steel.
But there were rumors that the company wasn’t finished with the releases of developmental talent. That turned out to be true for Ridge Holland, who was unfortunately told that his contract would not be renewed in November.
Bryce Donovan has just received the same news as the EVOLVE star revealed on his social media that he’s no longer part of WWE ID or EVOLVE.
I will no longer be with WWE ID or Evolve
Thanks for the good time everyone
Learned a lot especially from
@TheRealXPac
who’s the best coach anyone could ask for
I’ll let you know what’s happening next when I decide or maybe I won’t idk yet
Donovan just competed on EVOLVE this past Wednesday where he challenged Jackson Drake for the EVOLVE Championship. Like many of names listed above, Donovan was one of the first talents signed to the WWE ID program in 2024.
WWE hasn’t fully cleaned house from everyone on the WWE ID program as several names are still attached, but the company is moving forward as they just announced that a new group will be taking part of the program very soon.
It’s clear that WWE has a certain time limit for these men and women and it’s unlikely an Aliyah situation (she was in developmental for six years before being called up) is going to happen under the current WWE regime. In fact, Booker T addressed the recent WWE releases and gave a better insight on the mindset of WWE officials (Transcript courtesy of 411mania).
“As far as this developmental system, I would implore guys to think that they got perhaps two, two and a half years at that. So you’d better be motivated to try to figure out what this thing is all about. And you may not want to ask the elder statesman like myself. But you’d better if you want to know what it takes to make it to that next level. You’d better be asking everybody you possibly can, who’s been there and done that, ‘What is it going to take for me?’ Don’t put it in cruise control, because you can find yourself being one of these guys getting released.
And I’m not saying either of these guys that got released was on cruise control or anything like that. I don’t want that to be written that way up, put out there on social media like that. But I want to let these guys know that the clock is ticking. And they’re watching to see if you are one of the guys perhaps that could make it on the main roster. Make it to SummerSlam and WrestleMania and all the big events. That’s what this developmental program is. And I think that’s what the developmental program actually should be.”