WWE’s sale to Endeavor came with its casualties. The sports-entertainment giant was officially sold to its new parent company the day after WWE WrestleMania 39 in April, with Vince McMahon joining forces with Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel to announce the sale. Some fine-tuning came in the subsequent months, as Endeavor’s plan was to merge WWE with its other combat sports asset, UFC, to create one large publicly-traded company called TKO. That merger officially went into effect this past September. Days after top TKO executives rang the bell on Wall Street, WWE made significant budget cuts in both its corporate and talent departments.
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Veterans like Dolph Ziggler and Shelton Benjamin as well as NXT prospects such as Dabba Kato and Ikeman Jiro were given pink slips on September 21st.
25 Former WWE Stars Hit Free Agency This Week
It’s a new beginning for dozens of former sports-entertainers.
WWE’s batch of talent releases are set to become free agents tomorrow, December 21st. This comes after this group of 25 wrestlers were released on September 21st and had to sit out their 90-day no compete clauses. The full list of the former WWE stars expected to become free agents on Thursday can be seen below…
- Mustafa Ali
- Rick Boogs
- Dolph Ziggler
- Shelton Benjamin
- Riddick Moss
- Emma
- Aliyah
- Elias
- Top Dolla
- Dana Brooke
- Mace
- Mansoor
- Quincy Elliott
- Shanky
- Yuliya Leon
- Dabba Kato
- Bryson Montana
- Kevin Ventura-Cortez
- Daniel McArthur
- Alexis Gray
- Brooklyn Barlow
- Ikeman Jiro
- Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald
- Matt Riddle
- Melanie Brzezinski
Which Stars Will Wrestle on TV Again First?
All eyes will be on two names in particular from this list: Dolph Ziggler and Mustafa Ali. Ziggler and Ali found themselves in similar positions throughout their respective WWE runs, never receiving the extended spotlight in the main event scene that fans believed both were capable of.
Ziggler enjoyed success in the early 2010s, reigning as World Heavyweight Champion and headlining a couple of pay-per-views, but WWE never got behind him as strongly as it did in 2013 after he suffered an ill-timed concussion early into his world title reign.
Ali echoed much of Ziggler’s booking woes, finding himself with a main event push going into WWE WrestleMania 35, but an injury led to his spot getting replaced. Ali made his frustrations with WWE clear over the years, even publicly requesting his release back in 2022.
Ziggler has been rumored to be AEW bound for months, largely due to the fact that his brother, Ryan Nemeth, currently works there. Reports have circulated that AEW has already made creative pitches to get Ziggler involved in storylines. As for Ali, many fans have tied him to Impact Wrestling. With that promotion’s imminent TNA rebrand coming in January, Total Nonstop Action could have its eyes on the cruiserweight to slot into its critically-acclaimed X-Division.
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on all of the WWE releases’ futures.
