Last month, WWE released 25 main roster and NXT Superstars, with The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods also parting ways with the company this past weekend (and they weren't alone).
According to Bryan Alvarez, more talent is expected to be released in the coming weeks. He doesn't name names, but says that "a few of the people that were announced this weekend had actually been released a while ago, and it just wasn’t announced until this weekend, so I believe there might be others as well."
This comes after PWInsider.com revealed that "a pretty majorly pushed talent who was asked to take a 50% pay cut, and allegedly did."
There's been a lot of speculation about who it could be, but with TNA working closely with WWE and AEW no longer as big as it once was, some Superstars have clearly accepted that it's better to earn less in WWE than to try and brave the independents.
Back to Alvarez, he had more to share on reported pay cuts within WWE. "I've been told there were several people who were asked to take pay cuts, and they took them. I don’t know how many. I don’t know who. Obviously, the New Day was asked, and they did not want to renegotiate, and so they got their release."
"Apparently, there were some others who did end up renegotiating, and probably as time goes on, there will be more of these. In fact, there definitely will be," he added.
Dave Meltzer then chimed in to say, "I know one guy in this situation, he could go to AEW, and he could make a lot of money in AEW, but he did take a pretty big pay cut to stay. The reason you would be asked to renegotiate is that the contract you signed was when they perceived you as being far more valuable than they perceive you as being now."
"In the case of the person, it’s someone who would fit into that category, and the reason was not that he’s not good or not that he’s not great, but that they creatively didn’t take advantage of what they had, I would say is the best way of putting it," he continued. "But he accepted it, he didn’t take the risk or whatever it is of going elsewhere. It’s still a lot of money, you could say that."
Here's where things get interesting, though. Despite her being among those released by the company, it sounds like Kairi Sane could return as soon as this Saturday's Backlash PLE.
Her release has generated the most backlash—no pun intended—from fans, so like with R-Truth, it seems WWE is doing something to rectify that. However, it may be a one-and-done appearance for the Japanese wrestler.
"Within WWE, it’s felt there is a better than 50% chance that Kairi shows up at Backlash to at least finish off that storyline," Alvarez said of Asuka's upcoming match with Iyo Sky at the PLE.