After a run of recent releases, reports have surfaced that more are coming and some massive releases were announced today. Fightful Select (subscription required) was the first to report that WWE officials were planning to make more roster cuts and there are some pretty huge names involved. WWE later confirmed the news with a social media post of their own.
Among them, Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Ruby Riott, Lana, Santana Garrett and Buddy Murphy.
The report suggests cuts would come as early as this week but no real details were provided on which names were expected to be released. A couple hours later, the list started to come down and it's shocking.
Black has seemingly confirmed the release on Twitter. He wrote: "I'm gathering my thoughts as this was a complete left field for me as obviously we just started the dark father character but this was it, thank you so much WWE universe for allowing me to create and give you small bits of myself."
This may not be all of the releases either as Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast noted on Twitter this Wednesday morning that the WWE NXT UK brand is among the brands where multiple cuts could be taking place.
This is now the third series of cuts in the last couple of months. It was budget cuts in mid-April, then talent cuts in May. Among the names let go were The Iiconics, Samoa Joe, Kalisto, and Mickie James, among others.
What A Surprise
That Strowman is among the list is incredible. That Aleister Black would have vignettes and make his debut a couple of weeks ago only to be released during what was supposed to be a push is mind-boggling. As one of our writers here put it, "Is WWE just drawing names out of a hat?"
The timing of this is interesting considering WWE is gearing up to take their show on the road. One would think that the company would need the extra bodies, but it could be the opposite. Perhaps they want to get down to more of a skeleton crew, keeping only those talents who will be making live event appearances and who WWE believes can draw in the fans.