Dave Meltzer has directly addressed and dismissed the theory circulating among WWE talent that TKO leadership drove the releases of the Wyatt Sicks, Aleister Black, and Zelina Vega due to a preference for lighter characters in WWE programming.
In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer wrote: “Regarding the story that the Wyatts and Black were released because TKO didn’t like dark characters, we were told that was ‘bullshit’ and that these were not decisions that even reached that level.
The feeling was they got all out of the Wyatts they were going to get and Black and Vega was just a decision made on who they weren’t going to do anything more with. The reality is that even though they recruited Black hard to get out of AEW, once he returned, they really didn’t have much in the way of ideas for him.”
The theory had been making the rounds among WWE talent in the days following the April 24 releases, with PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reporting that multiple performers had raised the idea internally.
Fans and talent alike pointed to the pattern of darker characters being among those cut, and some drew a further connection to The Undertaker appearing in his American Badass biker persona rather than the supernatural Deadman character in recent WWE appearances. Johnson was careful to note he could not verify the theory, stating he had no way to prove whether it was accurate or simply assumptions based on the pattern of releases.
