Last night, the news broke that WWE has released several WWE and NXT Superstars, mere days after last weekend's WrestleMania PLE in Las Vegas.
There were some big surprises, including Kairi Sane—who has been a big part of Asuka's feud with Iyo Sky—and the entire Wyatt Sicks. That faction has suffered from stop-and-start booking, not helped by an injury to Bo Dallas that halted their momentum.
Some names, like Apollo Crews, Zoey Stark, and Santos Escobar, weren't quite as shocking, but Aleister Black and Zelina Vega's releases seemingly came out of nowhere. While Black hasn't done much since being brought back to WWE by Triple H, the company had considered inserting him into Randy Orton's feud with Cody Rhodes heading into WrestleMania.
His place in that storyline was ultimately taken by Pat McAfee, and Zelina has now broken her silence on how she was released. Interestingly, the former Women's United States Champion says the call came from WWE owners TKO this time, and not WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
"When people call me, it would usually say Stanford calling you, and that’s when your heart’s like, 'Oh f*ck,'" she revealed in a Twitch stream. "But this time it said TKO, so I was like, 'Ah, very telling.' 5:09 PM is when I found out. So, yeah, that is the thing."
Zelina was also highly critical of the journalist who broke the news of her WWE release. "I was so shocked. But yeah, I also would have appreciated if Sean Ross Sapp or whoever the f*ck announced it could have at least given me the decency to like let me do it myself first. But f*ck you, dude."
Here's a full list of Friday's WWE releases, along with more reactions:
– Kairi Sane
– Aleister Black
– Zelina
– Uncle Howdy/Bo Dallas
– Nikki Cross
– Santos Escobar
– Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin)
– Dexter Lumis
– Apollo Crews
– Rowan
– Joe Gacy
– Andre Chase
– Zoey Stark
– Alba Fyre
– Tyra Mae Steele
– Sirena Linton
– Tyson
– Tyriek
– Chris Island
– Malik Blade
– Trill London
– Luca Crusifino