Every year, a week or so after WrestleMania, World Wrestling Entertainment tends to do some "budget cuts" (despite making record profits every quarter and continually boasting how much revenue they're receiving from deals), which always results in employees being fired in one way or another.
Yesterday, that started with some of the behind the scenes talent, such as Senior Vice President of Creative Writing Operations Christine Lubrano and Ryan Pappolla—a longtime WWE Digital team member and host of shows like The Bump and The Ultimate Show.
Today, it seems that target has been shifted over to the Superstars themselves, and the first group of names to be released are reported to be Braun Strowman, Shayna Baszler, Dakota Kai, Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, Cora Jade, Riley Osborne, and Eddy Thorpe.
Post-publication Updates: Gigi Dolin, Jakara Jackson, and Gallus (Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, and Wolfgang), possibly also Javier Bernal and Oro Mensah have also been released.
The news of these releases were naturally broken by Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, as WWE has made it a habit for the past five years or longer of not outright announcing their releases—not even bothering to wish these men and women "the best in their future endeavors" anymore. Frequently, talent tend to find out about their releases through the "dirt sheets" first and on social media, before ultimately getting the dreaded phone call.
In some cases, WWE Superstars are not so much "released" or "fired", but their contracts are up and the company chooses not to renew them. In other scenarios, they are outright let go and are subject to different terms of their 90-day no-compete clauses. That information is still unknown about all of these wrestlers at the moment, so it should be treated as though all of them could potentially have to wait out the next three months before they go elsewhere.
Personal Reactions & What Happens Next?:
I knew this was coming, but I was still hoping it wouldn't be the case. It's always awful to hear about anyone losing their jobs. Only when someone wants to leave WWE is it good news that they've been released from the company.
It sounds mean to say, and it isn't intended to be such, but most of these names are not incredibly surprising given how WWE has been utilizing them as of late.
Braun Strowman, despite being a Triple Crown and former world champion, was used as a setup star for others like Jacob Fatu to beat.
Shayna Baszler's perpetually been underutilized almost since the start of her main roster run, for whatever reason, despite being amazing in NXT.
KC and KC were former women's tag team champions, but often sidelined. Cora Jade was abandoned by Roxanne Perez at WWE Stand & Deliver and the storyline was never addressed, which wasn't a good sign. Riley Osborne was dropped down a level to WWE EVOLVE after the split of Chase University, which has just returned without him being involved.
Dakota Kai, and many others, are beloved backstage, but still was passed over for others more often than not, and hadn't been wrestling as of late even after being cleared to compete.
Strangely, Eddy Thorpe has been used far more often over the past few months than he had been throughout the whole rest of his NXT career. For WWE to release him now is odd.
Hopefully, they all bounce back and find greener pastures in other companies like All Elite Wrestling, TNA Wrestling, and more, as they're all very talented and deserve to continue to perform at a high level.
What do you think of these releases? Where would you like to see them go next? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.