SoCal Val addressed the WWE post-WrestleMania 42 releases on the latest Wrestling News Co. news recap with co-host Angel (me!), naming several of the wrestlers cut as personal friends and pushing back on the boilerplate “future endeavors” framing that companies use when announcing departures.
“I genuinely wish everyone continued success. And I won’t say future endeavors, that it now at this point sounds very disingenuous and almost condescending, so I won’t say that. But I genuinely wish everyone continued success.”
Val singled out Kairi Sane as the release she could not square.
“Kairi Sane, huge fan of. I couldn’t believe that one. That was odd, and it just seemed like it was like maybe someone pulling the carpet out from under her. That seemed very strange to me.”
WWE released roughly 25 wrestlers on April 24, including the entire Wyatt Sicks faction (Bo Dallas, Joe Gacy, Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis, and Nikki Cross), the Motor City Machine Guns, Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Kairi Sane, Santos Escobar, Apollo Crews, Alba Fyre, Zoey Stark, and others.
On Dexter Lumis, who Val knew from his TNA run as Sam Shaw, she pointed to the Instagram video he posted six days after his release. The video shows his former NXT on-screen wife Indi Hartwell cutting his Wyatt Sicks dreadlocks and beard before the date 7.24.26 flashes on screen, marking the end of his 90-day non-compete clause.
“It’s like a Sarah Jessica Parker dyeing her hair with a breakup. Oh, we love that. It’s like Emily in Paris who cuts the bangs. It’s like a new beginning for him, a new awakening, and he deserves it. Any company would be beyond lucky to have him. He has been such a talent, just such a mind for the business, such a smart, cerebrally, intrinsically gifted guy for the business, and such a student of the game, and actually has students in the game. He teaches students as well.”
She added that Shaw will land where he wants. “What’s he gonna do in wrestling? Whatever the hell he wants. This is his business to take charge of.”
Val, who has lived in the UK for nearly a decade and works with Progress Wrestling, addressed Alba Fyre’s release through her UK roots. Fyre wrestled as Kay Lee Ray on the British indie circuit and in NXT UK before being repackaged for the main roster.
“Alba Fyre, Kay Lee Ray is somebody that in the UK, I’ve been here for almost 10 years. I’ve seen how hard she grafts, I’ll say how hard she works to translate to American here. She’s been so loved and respected and so patient, in my opinion, with WWE in terms of being on the roster for such a long time, having done different things.”
On Big Damo (formerly Killian Dain in WWE) and his wife Nikki Cross, Val said she had already reached out to Cross directly.
“Big Damo is one of my buddies, and of course Nikki, one of my favorite, Nikki Cross. I literally wrote to her on Instagram and I said, ‘Wherever you’re going to end up, I just can’t wait to see where you’re gonna flourish next.'”
Val made a selfish ask for the UK-based wrestlers among the cuts to work some indie hometown dates before their next chapter.
“Selfishly, because I’m in the UK and I work with Progress Wrestling, I would love to see them, just in their downtime, because they’re coming back to the UK I’m assuming, work some hometown shows. Feel the love and feel how much they were missed and how much they’re loved and get that sort of support from their hometowns here. And then go on to their next chapter, which they’re gonna flourish in.”
She cited Drew McIntyre’s post-release career as the model.
“Look at Drew McIntyre. I loved his story in the sense that he was released from WWE, took on the world, literally. I mean, I don’t know who else in their career has done something like that. He just repackaged himself and took every booking, and there’s a way to do it, and the ones that I mentioned, they will do it. They will flourish. They’ll be stronger because of it.”
Val also addressed the post-WrestleMania timing pattern itself.
“We’re fans that are used to this. The high that we’re all on for WrestleMania, the ones that know, big fans like us, we’re in the business, whatever, we know that that high is gonna be met with a low. Then we’re gonna go, ‘Well, when are these releases happening?’ We’re checking our phones like, ‘Is it someone I know?’ It’s a horrible, horrible feeling.”
Val is in her 24th year in wrestling, having debuted in 2002 with Golden State Championship Wrestling in California before her long TNA run as a backstage interviewer, ring announcer, and on-screen valet. She now hosts The Velvet Ropes interview show on the Wrestling News Co. YouTube channel and works for Monopoly Events and several independent wrestling companies.
