WWE released a number of wrestlers on Thursday, including Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali, Emma and Shelton Benjamin. While WWE did not directly comment on any of the releases, Fightful Select‘s Sean Ross Sapp had a number of details from people wthin the company. The news broke within hours of WWE announcing it had signed a new TV rights deal with NBCUniversal to bring Friday Night SmackDown back to the USA Network (reportedly a five-year deal for $1.4 billion), and there was apparently frustration within the locker room that cuts would come right after announcing such a lucrative deal.ย
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“The line of thinking from many on the roster is that WWE aligned these cuts with the announcement of Elimination Chamber and Smackdown rights fee deal in order to minimize the negative impact on the company,” Sapp wrote. He also noted that the releases were in “direct correlation” with WWE’s merger with The UFC into TKO Group, which was finalized last week.ย
Sapp also noted that mass releases were not discussed under Paul Levesque’s tenure as WWE’s head booker. He stepped into the role in July 2022 when Vince McMahon announced his retirement, though McMahon returned to the company in January and reports of him interfering and making changes to WWE’s booking plans have been popping up for months. Stay tuned for future updates.
“Many WWE talent we spoke with thought that after the last year and a half or so, that WWE was going the AEW route of just letting contracts expire as opposed to mass cuts,” Sapp tweeted. “Unfortunately that isn’t the case.”
WWE Reacts to the SmackDown x USA Network Deal
“NBCUniversal has been a tremendous partner of WWE for decades,” WWE Presidentย Nick Khanย said in the press release announcing the SmackDown deal on Thursday. “We are excited to extend this longstanding relationship by bringing SmackDown to USA Network on Friday nights and look forward to debuting multiple WWE special events annually on NBC.”ย
“It’s a privilege and thrill to continue NBCU’s decades-long partnership with WWE which has helped cement USA Network’s consistent position as the top-rated cable entertainment network in live viewership” Frances Berwick, Chairman, NBCUniversal Entertainment, added. “With Friday nights on USA, primetime specials on NBC, and the WWE hub on Peacock, we’ll continue to use the power of our portfolio to super-serve this passionate fanbase.”ย
