Last Friday, WWE released 25 main roster and NXT Superstars, including the entire Wyatt Sicks. That meant saying goodbye to Uncle Howdy (Bo Dallas), Erick Rowan (Rambling Rabbit), Dexter Lumis (Mercy the Buzzard), Joe Gacy (Huskus the Pig Boy), and Nikki Cross
(Abby the Witch).
Following an unforgettable debut, the faction's momentum was halted when Dallas was injured. When he was cleared, the group found itself in a meandering feud with Solo Sikoa's MFT. Then, even during a three-hour SmackDown, The Wyatt Sicks never seemed like a priority.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer shed new light on why they and Aleister Black and Zelina Vega were released by WWE (even after being brought back into the fold by Triple H).
"It was just felt that the group had run its course. Even at first there were those who saw it as a short-term idea," he explained. "It was basically a tribute to Bray Wyatt and was over big at first but it was limiting how they could be used with that gimmick over the long haul."
"The feeling was they got all out of the Wyatts they were going to get and Black and Vega was just a decision made on who they weren’t going to do anything more with," Meltzer added. "The reality is that even though they recruited Black hard to get out of AEW, once he returned, they really didn’t have much in the way of ideas for him."
"Regarding the story that the Wyatts and Black were released because TKO didn’t like dark characters, we were told that was ‘bullshit’ and that these were not decisions that even reached that level," he continued, dismissing recent online rumours. "[AEW President Tony Khan] did negotiate with Zelina when she was let go the last time, but she pretty much ghosted him and signed back."
The releases mark a quiet, somewhat anticlimactic end to one of WWE's most emotionally charged experiments. Born from grief and genuine affection for Bray Wyatt, The Wyatt Sicks captured lightning in a bottle during their haunting debut. Yet, it seems WWE simply couldn't figure out the best way to utilise them moving forward.
Meltzer's latest update confirms what many suspected: nostalgia carried them early, but the creative ceiling was hit fast. Once the tribute phase faded, no long-term vision emerged, and the same creative drought claimed Aleister Black, despite the company’s earlier aggressive pursuit of him from AEW.