The wave of WWE talent departures that began following WrestleMania 42 appears to have run its course, at least for now. Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE has finished making cuts and that all affected talent have been notified of their situations.
“I am told that cuts are done. I don’t know if we know every name, but every name has been told. So if someone was told and did not go on social media or they did not remove the name from the website yet, it is possible a name or two could still come up, but they have all been done for now,” Meltzer said.
This leaves open the possibility that a small number of additional names could still surface publicly, either through social media announcements or WWE moving performers to the alumni section of their website, but the decisions themselves have already been communicated internally.
As of this writing, there have been 30 known WWE departures since WrestleMania 42, including 18 from the main roster. That compares to just six main roster cuts at the same point last year, making this year’s wave triple the size of the previous year’s post-WrestleMania releases. Among the notable names let go were the New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, the entire Wyatt Sicks faction, Kairi Sane, Aleister Black, the Motor City Machine Guns, Zelina Vega, Santos Escobar, Kairi Sane, Alba Fyre, and Zoey Stark.
Meltzer previously explained that the unusually large number of cuts stemmed from three factors: WWE holding back on releases last year while trying to establish itself under new ownership and now playing catch-up, the need to offset a wave of NXT call-ups to the main roster with a similar number of departures, and SmackDown’s imminent return to two hours creating less television time and therefore less need for roster depth on the blue brand.
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