The WWE has done some spring cleaning so to speak, as it has released another slew of talent, just a few months after a series releases in February. As of this writing, there are 15 performers that were cut from their contracts, with most of them being from the NXT developmental system.
Truth be told, the majority of those releases were small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, which isn’t an indication of their talent, but rather to point out that their status within the company was minimal enough that their departure doesn’t truly affect the overall status of their respective brands, especially some of those that were within the system, but either didn’t make it to television on a regular basis yet or weren’t featured enough to have a continuous role on the show.
Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, Shayna Baszler, Kayden Carter, Katana Chance were among the main roster releases. Gigi Dolin, Cora Jade, Riley Osborne, Eddy Thorpe, Jakara Jackson, Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, Wolfgang, Oro Mensah, and Javier Bernal were the list of NXT exits.
There were a few surprising names on the main roster list, but overall, this really shouldn’t be a shocking move from the WWE office. Shifting talent around happens every year, mostly when management has to make room for newly signed talent or potential moves to the main roster.
That being said, the names that stuck out to me the most from this list were Braun Strowman and Shayna Baszler. Strowman was a pure WWE project and he checked all the boxes that at least the former regime looked for in a prospect to put the WWE machine behind. He was a massive super heavyweight that was somewhat of a throwback to a previous era of the organization, no technique, just brute force, and there’s usually an audience for that, particularly within the WWE fan base. Braun event trimmed down in recent years and you’d think that a slightly learner frame would add a few years to his career. Unfortunately, the tale of Strowman’s career might be as simple as he wasn’t in the right place at the right time. When he was introduced to the WWE audience during his initial run with the company, he was paired with the Wyatt family, which made sense on the surface, but as Bray was often used as an enhancement talent to make others look good in the ring, the cache of the stable declined. When Strowman got the biggest chance of his career on his own, he beat Bill Goldberg in two minutes in an empty studio during the infamous Wrestlemania 36 event of the pandemic era. Much like Drew McIntyre, who also won a championship that year, didn’t truly get his moment until years later, Strownman didn’t get a boost from winning the belt under those conditions.
Braun was actually released from the company in 2021 and spent a year controlling his narrative until he re-signed with the organization in 2022. There were a lot of contracts cut around that time to basically trim the budget as a way to pad the profit margins for the conference calls of the publicly-traded corporation so his release in 2021 was probably based more of the numbers than anything else. However, his exit also gave him a chance to return with a fresh start. Again, it was an unfortunate situation that he never recaptured the previous momentum that he had and the past two and a half years since he returned he was often sidelined with a few different injuries, including a very serious neck injury that required surgery, putting him on the shelf for almost a year.
It’s puzzling to consider that he was one of the most over acts in the promotion in 2018 when there were some that thought he should’ve been booked in the main event spot that Vince McMahon shoehorned Roman Reigns into instead at a time when the forced baby face super push flopped.
At 43, Strowman has some prime years of his career left, but given his history of injuries, and more specifically the younger talent on the roster that can work in his prior role, it made sense for the WWE to release him. It’s a harsh reality, but both Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu are younger, healthier with less of a toll taken on their body, and possibly have a bigger upside than Braun so he was surpassed by other talent. That being said, assuming Braun still wants to wrestle, if he’s healthy, he could rejuvenate his career in New Japan, as the group definitely needs a boost in star power Aside from the style, the other roadblock might be the amount of money the Japanese league could offer since it’s well-known that their revenues have declined in recent years. If nothing else, a short run in TNA could be in the cards for him.
Shayna Baszler wasn’t spotlighted consistently, which has nothing to do with her talent, but she did well in the roles she was given so I’m not sure if there was anything else she could’ve done to improve her tenure in the WWE. The sad part is, she more or less played second fiddle to Rhonda Rousey within the WWE landscape, and when she finally beat Rousey at Summer Slam in 2023, the match was so bad that it did nothing to boost her stock. Even after Rousey left the WWE, the organization never truly capitalized on her MMA background so maybe they didn’t want it to appear that they were trying to repeat the same type of push with a lesser known version of Rhonda. Either way, I’d say that the office missed the boat on Baszler and she could’ve had a better run in the company, particular as a part of the stellar group of talent currently at the top of the women’s division. If I had to guess, I’d say Baszler works the independent circuit in the United States or goes to one of the prominent women’s groups in Japan to wrestle for at least a few more years.
Dakota Kai is very talented, but was just too injury prone to be featured long enough to be established as a star on WWE programming. A pair of knee injuries had her out of action for extended periods of time on two different occasions and then she suffered a concussion this past January. As far as not being featured enough to establish themselves, Kayden Carter and Katana Chance didn’t really get enough of an opportunity to make their mark on the main roster. If I had to guess, they were brought to the main roster just to get new talent involved, but there wasn’t truly a plan for them going forward. Yes, they won the women’s tag titles at one point, but the reign was undistinguished, and after they were under the WWE umbrella for roughly seven years each, the level of their progress probably wasn’t enough to justify their spots on the roster. That being said, I think TNA is an easy choice for them as their next stop in the industry.
Nothing against any of the NXT talent that got cut, but outside of Gigi Dolin and Cora Jade, the impact on their releases in the grand scheme of things is minor, at least from the WWE perspective. Dolin already made her way to Impact, and that’s probably where Cora Jade with go next as well
The biggest takeaway from this round of releases is probably the same takeaway from most cuts made from the company, it can be a key step to a bigger career overall. Sure, it’s disappointing if someone gets releases from their dream job, but the chance to evolve and reinvent themselves outside of the WWE is a major plus in this scenario. The two biggest modern era are Cody Rhodes, who developed the American Nightmare persona that became the top guy in the company outside of the WWE, and Drew McIntyre as an example of someone that completely reignited his career after he had the chance to distance himself from the prior comedy gimmick. It will be interesting to see the next move for many of the recently released talent and how they evolve their careers.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
