Vince McMahon once again appeared on this week’s Monday Night Raw for a backstage segment with Austin Theory, but one of his comments from the episode rubbed people the wrong way. McMahon, fully in his Mr. McMahon persona, claimed, “I enjoy firing people. I especially enjoy firing people just before the holidays, it gives me a warm feeling in my stomach like I just had a really good meal.” Some fans stated on social media that the comment was in poor taste given that WWE has released more than 80 wrestlers since the start of the year (many of which took place just last month).
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One of those releases included Taya Valkyrie, who wrestled just six matches in NXT as Franky Monet before getting released. Her husband, John Morrison, was let go weeks later. She saw McMahon’s comment and responded with, “lol, that warm feeling is the fire he’s lit in all of us.”
While McMahon has refrained from responding to the 2021 releases, WWE president Nick Khan gave his side of the business decisions over SummerSlam weekend in an interview with Ariel Helwani.
“I don’t know that there’s one explanation for it,” Khan said. “I think ultimately what’s looked at is, is this person — for us — going to move the needle now, or in the imminent future. So, by the way, we had a tryout, a two-day tryout in Las Vegas which ended yesterday. Which Triple H, and Johnny Laurinaitis, and Bruce Prichard were all across, as were the rest of us. We’ve signed over a dozen new talent coming out of that tryout. And I’m not suggesting, “Oh that’s why we cut the other talent.” But we’re always looking for what’s next. We live in the present, we live in the future. We don’t live in the past. So when people leave, and they move on with their life and their careers? That’s good by us. For us, it’s what works for us and our product at that moment in time, and again, what’s gonna work down the road. And largely in part the existing roster is based on that.”
Valkyrie has yet to wrestle a match since her release, she did return to Lucha Libre AAA earlier this month to challenge Deonna Purrazzo for the Reina de Reinas Championship.
