During a recent edition of their podcast, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson opened up about their WWE departure (which they blame squarely on Paul Heyman despite Vince McMahon being the one to make the final decision) and those widely reported travel issues the WWE roster suffered in Saudi Arabia.
On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained that as well as high paying contracts being an issue, it's likely The O.C. members were released after comments from Anderson's wife created quite a stir and resulted in a lot of negative publicity for the company as they attempted to cover up what had happened Saudi Arabia.
"Everyone knew that the list was all the people that complained about money or had not signed the first deal," he explained. "If FTR, would have stayed, they probably would have gotten cut because they probably would have gotten so much money to stay and when it would have came time for the cuts they would have been [cut]. Mike Bennett, who got a lot of money to stay and then complained about it [and] Rusev who was having a contract dispute. Those were the guys who were cut. Gallows and Anderson didn’t sign the first offer."
"Another thing was that the guys who had given the company bad publicity over Saudi Arabia, which was Rusev and Karl Anderson and Joe Hennig, I think," Meltzer continued. "The other one was Andrade but Andrade is in the Flair family so he was safe. There was a lot of bitterness because WWE sees it one way…The reason that there was a problem [with Saudi Arabia] is because guys said there was a problem and everything and there’s all those tweets out there which WWE couldn’t deny and it led to this lawsuit as a matter of fact."
The lawsuit Meltzer refers to is a class-action lawsuit from WWE shareholders who believe the company has misrepresented their dealing with Saudi Arabia (and in that, an anonymous WWE Superstar is listed as having shared information with them).
Regardless, Gallows and Anderson are now part of IMPACT Wrestling and intending on returning to New Japan Pro Wrestling at some point too.