Today has been a rough one for many talented wrestlers working for WWE, as like last year around this same time WWE has announced a host of roster cuts. So far today 8 superstars have been released, including Samoa Joe, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Kalisto, and more. WWE has released an official statement on the cuts but did not reveal any official reason for them, though Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp shed a bit more light on the situation. According to Sapp John Laurinaitis is the one making the calls to talent, and in those calls, he has said budget cuts are the reason for the releases.
Sapp wrote on Twitter “I’m told John Laurinaitis has been making the calls to talent and citing budget cuts as the reason for the WWE releases.”
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I’m told John Laurinaitis has been making the calls to talent and citing budget cuts as the reason for the WWE releases
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 15, 2021
The budget cuts reasoning isn’t sitting well with fans on social media, who point out that WWE recently signed a huge deal with Peacock for the exclusive streaming rights to their programming.
In addition to that deal WWE has also inked a deal with Cameo and that is on top of the fact that even during the pandemic the company was profitable and in the black. That was the case last year as well when the company released even more talent from its roster, and it remains to be seen if there will be more releases to come today.
Most of those stars released in the previous round of cuts found jobs with other promotions, including Rusev (now Miro), Heath Slater, Deonna Purrazzo, Zack Ryder, Lio Rush, the Good Brothers, Eric Young, and Tay Conti to name a few, and hopefully the talent affected by today’s cuts can find landing spots quickly as well.
