Billie Kay and Mickie James released (+ others)

[HarmonicGenerator]

Surprised about Hit Row. I haven’t seen any of them other than Swerve before so can’t comment on ability, but why go to the effort to bring a group up to the main shows then get rid of the lot?

It’s a shame for Drake and for Tegan especially - I listened to Mark Andrews’ podcast recently and making it to WWE was very obviously a dream come true for her. Any other company would be lucky to get Spud on the books.

Morrison and Thorne are less surprising. I thought Thorne had potential immediately after the TM61 split but that was years ago now. The chance has probably passed him by.

Jaxson Ryker, good riddance. Is that all the Forgotten Sons gone?

[Tsurutagun]

Morrison's release was probably coming after the Taya release. 

Thorne will probably end on NJPW String with Jonah 

Tegan for AEW if she gets her visa sorted out? 

I feel bad for Adonis and Swerve. Top Dolla was a numpty which you could see from that A&E show about the memoribilia and made it worse with the Bucks stuff and then his comments about Mahal and Shanky. After those comments, I hear Yorkshire CCC are hiring. Dolla would fit in there perfectly. 

[Winston]

Hit Row were one of the few acts I saw on WWE TV this year and thought they had huge upside. Swerve and Top Dollar especially looked like they could be big stars and the move to SmackDown would set them on their way.

This company is utterly clueless. They tried to monopolise the whole world now they're casting people aside like pieces of rubbish. They have hours of television to fill every week and can barely put together even one watchable show.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Winston

[DavidB6937]

It was clear from the moment they announced John Morrison had signed again that they didn't really give a shit about him. He should've been a solid mid-card singles act with a toe dipped in the main event scene here and there, but he got stuck with The Miz and never really had a chance after that. Personally I've never been a big fan of him but he had enough about him to be worthy of a roster spot.

Same with Tegan Nox really. Damn tough journey during NXT. Then teaming with Shotzi on the main roster and basically forgotten about. Shotzi's lucky that she's got a marketable look etc at the moment. Nox should've been an easy win for them really by showcasing her struggles and getting the fans behind her. I know people say she wasn't going to amount to much but you would've said the same for Becky Lynch in the beginning too. You don't know who'll catch on unless you actually give them a solid chance and she never got that on the main roster.

Hit Row. As everyone has said - it's just fucking stupid. If they had to get called up then SmackDown was the perfect place for them and I do think they could've succeeded. But WWE don't really seem interested in that.

Drake is a versatile creative talent that should have a place somewhere on WWE's roster with so much TV time but again that would require them to be logical which they're not.

Thorne and Ryker. Whatever really. I'd say they'll be fine elsewhere but I doubt they feel like they've missed out on much.

[chokeout]

You'd think someone willing to piss themselves on live TV would have a job for life with Vince. Drake will be fine, he's well liked and is one of the few people who genuinely 'gets' his place in the industry and has no issues making himself look a fool to put others over, which seems to be rarer and rarer. 

Morrison has proved he can make a living outside WWE before and thrived last time he left. 

Nox is a sad one, she seemed to be a pet project for HHH but injuries at the worst times meant she never got a decent run. Hopefully it doesn't cause too many visa issues and she can slot into AEW. I really, really want to know what the dynamic with WWE/NXT and HHH is now. 

[mim731]

Between the other rounds of cuts, and the ROH releases there's an awful lot of talent on the free market now. Surely there's a money man somewhere thinking about setting up a third promotion, because good lord there's more than enough talent out there to fill a third one. Whether there's an audience, that's a different question I suppose, probably not. 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

It’s really borderline tedious now, WWE are self imploding making all these releases they might as well just have a small combined roster as it’s clear outside of a main group they don’t give two fucks about anyone

As of this latest batch

Morrison - doomed once Miz got injured/done DWTS, even more so when Taya got released

Hit Row - biggest shock but this seems more because Top Dolla keeps running his mouth, indies will be falling over themselves to get Strickland booked

Teagan - poor girl has destroyed her knees on 3 occasions on their watch and they still kick her out, don’t think AEW or Impact will take a chance on that ground but indies and NWA might as occasional 

Drake - thought he’d got a massive redemption after competing in the Cruiserweight tournament and getting the new contract but soon slipped back into 24/7 fodder. Would expect him to go back to Impact and actually be a wrestler again

Shane Thorne - only surprise is he lasted this long, don’t think he’s even been on TV in over a year

Ryker - last of the Forgotten Sons to fall,  disappeared from view once the feud with Elias was done with

[mim731]

3 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

It’s really borderline tedious now, WWE are self imploding 

I don't know about that. Obviously it's never nice to see people lose their jobs, but by their own metric which appears to be profit, they are about as far from self imploding as they could possibly be. It may not be the best product (and their business practices are frequently reprehensible), and it won't likely be better by losing all these talented performers from the roster, but they don't exactly seem to be in crisis mode. 

[BomberPat]

25 minutes ago, chokeout said:

Nox is a sad one, she seemed to be a pet project for HHH but injuries at the worst times meant she never got a decent run. Hopefully it doesn't cause too many visa issues and she can slot into AEW. I really, really want to know what the dynamic with WWE/NXT and HHH is now. 

Nox is an interesting one because she was a real favourite of Michael Cole's too; he was always really obviously high on her when he commentated on the Mae Young Classic, and had spoken about her in interviews before. It's only one person, so probably not a huge deal, but Cole at one point was being groomed to have a pretty significant production/management role, so it may be a lower key version of what's happened with Triple H were people who once had influence have been sidelined.

In the short term, she'll do well for herself in the UK and Europe - she's extremely well liked, and there's a lot of matches to run back, or fresh opponents for her, that could keep her busy for a long time if there are visa issues preventing her signing elsewhere. 

[Infinity Land]

12 minutes ago, mim731 said:

Between the other rounds of cuts, and the ROH releases there's an awful lot of talent on the free market now. Surely there's a money man somewhere thinking about setting up a third promotion, because good lord there's more than enough talent out there to fill a third one. Whether there's an audience, that's a different question I suppose, probably not. 

It would take a proper money man. Look at how Impact scrambled for a TV deal after Spike. I think in the end they were only meant to be pocketing $1m a year from PopTV. At that stage they were also being propped up by their old international TV deals.

AEW hoovers up a lot of the international audience that would sub to FITE. Then there's all the other indies out there that pick streaming buys.

You'd probably need someone to throw money at it in the model of the pre-Dynamite AEW. Have a big monthly PPV. Use social media to build the matches. Try and snare a TV company.

[RedRooster]

Maverick should land on his feet, whether it's in Impact or AEW. Scott and Adonis would be a nice addition to the AEW tag scene. In spite of all the recent signings; the tag title picture doesn't feel refreshed in any way, and could do with an injection of top level talent. 

As far as WWE goes, it must be a horrible place to work right now if you're anyone other than a top, top level talent. Releases are going to happen of course, it's a business at the end of the day. But the frequency and seemingly random nature of them must be so demoralising and anxiety-inducing. 

[Loki]

So many of these recent releases are PC/NXT/HHH graduates.  We've talke before about the relative success or otherwise of the PC and there's a bunch of deadwood that it produced that the WWE would never need.

But we're well into the actual PC success stories now, they're releasing young, gifted, over talent.  It's bizarre.  And through all this we've had no health updates from HHH in months.

Like most people I'd assumed the future for WWE was HHH taking over and using his experience and the talent he'd developed though the PC to reforge the company in his image.  Now it seems clear that's not happening, and the WWE is rejecting his vision wholesale.

----

Someone mentioned there's now a space for a third major company in the US market.  My fantasy booking is HHH leaves WWE and scoops up all this talent, starts a plucky underdog wrestling company.  To be honest though, I'd also like to hear that he's actually better and isn't on death's door still.

[Supremo]

Either Maverick already had that video in the can, ready for when he’d get released, or in the space of a few hours he managed to produce the best video of anyone they’ve let go. I don’t know which is more impressive but either way it’s the most obvious example yet of his talent and instincts.

If you can sign Jay Lethal and Tony Neese you sure as fuck can sign Spud. He’s the best.

[DavidB6937]

4 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

As far as WWE goes, it must be a horrible place to work right now if you're anyone other than a top, top level talent. Releases are going to happen of course, it's a business at the end of the day. But the frequency and seemingly random nature of them must be so demoralising and anxiety-inducing. 

And yet they're not allowing anyone to grow and become a top level talent. They just release them. It'll be interesting if several top talents get injured at the same time. Maybe they'll finally realise then that they should've been putting far more effort into the other parts of the roster and investing in the future.

[Lorne Malvo]

Tegan Nox is a big surprise. She's one I'd love to see in AEW if she can stay healthy, she's got a massive upside.

The rest I'm not particularly surprised by. I completely forgot Shane Thorne existed but I did enjoy him in NXT a few years back. They'll probably reform TMDK somewhere.

Drake Maverick is an insincere Thunderbird puppet-looking arsehole who I can happily go without seeing ever again. At least we were spared a video of him forcing tears out this time.