WWE firing 23 wrestlers last week shocked the wrestling fan base, but it turns out they had a reason behind it. Annual releases often come after WrestleMania when WWE intends to shake up the roster. However, this one seemed more ruthless to have almost two dozen names gone from the company just days after making massive profits at the two-day event of WrestleMania 42.
Fightful reported that WWE fired a lot of established talent to free up space to get new names on television:
“There is a lot of talk of TKO making the calls for the cuts. Triple H, Nick Khan and WWE talent relations were ultimately the primary decision makers, per WWE sources. WWE sources indicated that majority of releases were to make way for new talent, and the possibility of Smackdown reducing to two hours in the near future (a point that was reported by Bodyslam+). A number of NXT releases were also made as new Performance Center signings are expected to be announced soon.”
Both main roster and NXT talents were both impacted by the firing for better or worse. Many performers lost their jobs, but this is also intended to call up NXT stars to the main roster and sign new prospects to debut in NXT soon.
Why Fans Still Reject WWE’s Logic
WWE received a lot of negative attention from wrestling fans upset over many of their favorite performers getting fired out of the blue. Names like Kairi Sane, Aleister Black, and Zelina Vega were in storylines over the past couple of months to make it stranger they are now just gone.
The company constantly boasts about record profits and will reveal every major financial figure. Executives and non-wrestlers make the most money from this, so it comes off even colder when talents get fired with zero warning.
WWE also makes fans invest in talents with television time that they don’t respect enough to write off like most television shows. Even AEW typically has a noteworthy moment writing off their talents with a big match or moment before they are gone from television.
What This Means For WWE’s Future
The biggest takeaway here is that many NXT stars will be called up to replace the roster spots of fired names. Ricky Saints, Joe Hendry, Ethan Page, Sol Ruca, Blake Monroe, Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Lainey Reid have all been confirmed to get called up to Ra,w or Smackdown over the past week.
Another big change is that WWE is reportedly announcing a new free agent class for the Performance Center soon. The NXT firings were done to debut more names currently training at the WWE schooling facility. New prospects will start training soon to replace talents getting called up to NXT.
WWE doesn’t shy away from having cold business practices and firing anyone they lose faith in at the drop of a hat. Fans and wrestlers, like Rhea Ripley, currently under WWE contract have expressed displeasure all weekend about the news, but management is likely going to keep doing this every year as their annual cycle.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Shocking Reason For WWE Firing Over 20 Wrestlers Revealed appeared first on HEAVY.