He ended up being in the same boat as Lars Sullivan in regards to whatever big plans they had for him got derailed due to an injury and being involved in an incident or two that didn't do him any favors.


From WWE's recent financial reports and him not being the only one who has been coming up with those numbers.

I'm sure he will get a good write off though :rofl:

Just saw that Cody posted a lengthy thing on Instagram praising Zack Ryder.....

Wonder where he is going to end up... :?:

Ryder is a good pick up for any company. Dude looks great, solid performer and a prolific work horse. Plus he still has his cult following online. Everyone should be going after him.

He's gonna go to AEW though.

I've never read a single WWE financial report that lists the wrestlers salary/contract, other then the executives like HHH who have their talent earnings mentioned in their total compensation.

If it's out there what was Ryder's or Rowan's salary? Meltzer either has copies of every WWE wrestlers contracts and added the amounts up for the ones let go, or he is utterly full of shit.

Outside of Rusev, his release is the one that stings the most for me out of everyone announced.

Did a lot to help WWE in terms of them becoming a lot more social media active and changing the negative perception they had of the internet. WWE's reward to him was to basically treat him like shit afterwards because he got over organically with fans and didn't need WWE's help to make it happen. His road to the US title and title victory over Ziggy in 2011 is still one of my favorite moments from WWE in the 2010s.

Even once managed to have a crowd hijack a Rock promo because they wanted him to show up instead.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The fans chanting “We Want Ryder” as The Rock tries to cut a promo in Madison Square Garden after the 2011 Survivor Series. <a href="https://t.co/sf3jtH109E">pic.twitter.com/sf3jtH109E</a></p>&mdash; Ryan Satin (@ryansatin) <a href="https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1250558925386051584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

100% right. As much as he made WWE finally embrace the importance of social media, Ryder never got enough credit from WWE for it.

Z True Long Island Story was a fun watch every week.

Then WWE made him start doing it for their YouTube channel and Ryder said that completely sucked the fun out of it for him.

That number doesn't come from him knowing what all the actual contract amounts are and instead is mostly from deducting the other expensive that were part of the cuts. Even WWE stated the bulk of that $4 million monthly savings was due to them halting construction of their new HQ.

He's not even the first to float around a low talent cost number since others were doing it earlier as part of them defending WWE online over the timing of these cuts.

Right, but he purports it as him having sources and "knowing". The fact that it's such a specific and random number is to further allude to that. If it was just an estimate, he would just say $700,000. $703,000 is just him slanting the narrative in a way to make it seem that he isn't full of shit.

This week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter probably will have more details on that talent cost number but its also entirely possible that was something mentioned by his sources and he confirmed it afterwards.

He's been doing other number crunching to figure out how much of an impact the coronavirus really will have on the company this year and came to the conclusion WWE still likely are going to rake in around $1 billion just from their global tv deals. Other major areas like house show and merch/licensing revenues dropping to zero for the rest of the year wouldn't impact that number nor needing the Saudis to bail them out with another Saudi show.

Meanwhile every other notable wrestling company probably going to need a miracle to make any profit this year and none have resorted to doing cuts to save money. Not even Impact and they've been on shaky financial grounds for years. Even Sinclair and their current money issues hasn't been a problem for ROH since they have been paying talent for cancelled shows.

yeah roh and aew will have to be write offs for the sinclare and tony. impact tapes shows anyway so no real loss. new japan may get gov help in japan they hope. don't know about mlw and nwa.

Oh I'm no way arguing that Vince isn't a complete asshole for firing anybody with the amount of money they are still bringing in. Just specifically that I think Meltzer is a joke of a reporter, and that he is full of shit most of the time.

Quoting $703,000 exactly, that's his typical bullshit style. He is either guessing or taking other general estimates and picking a specific number to portray that he has the scoop.

Meltzer is not full of shit most of the time. Stop.

Xrod, stop listening to bruce Prichard, you fucking hack.

I hate reddit.

MLW is likely in the same boat as Impact and ROH where this year is a loss for them but are getting some financial help from their tv deals during these times.

No clue on NWA although Corgan mentioned a while ago of them desperately needing a real tv contract if they wanted to survive for the long term.

4 more names from NXT were revealed to have been released.

Out of those 4, Conti is the most notable one considering she was the first person in NXT to have a match or segment beat out AEW in viewership. WWE rewarded that achievement by basically not having her appear on NXT shows for some time afterwards.


Edit: Add Tino Sabbatelli to the list as well since Fightful reported he got released.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As reported on Fightful Select, Tino Sabbatelli was among the releases</p>&mdash; Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1251279717644275712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Aliyah lives to fight another day....

Meltzer says that main roster released wrestlers have a 90 day non-compete clause, so can't sign anywhere until July 15.

NXT wrestlers have 30 day non-competes.

Conti is hot. That's what I am choosing to add to this at the moment.

Seems plans for NXT Japan are dead for now since WWE's cuts are also expected to start impacting those who have signed on with the project over there.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tokyo Sports about NXT Japan: &quot;The aftermath of the mass layoffs by WWE is likely to extend to Japan.&quot; The article quotes not further specified &quot;people invovled&quot;: &quot;It is likely that this will make it difficult for the company to expand to Japan.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/IWQOW5tkqi">https://t.co/IWQOW5tkqi</a></p>&mdash; Eastern Lariat (@EasternLariat) <a href="https://twitter.com/EasternLariat/status/1251067499573108736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tino Sabbatelli’s another one where you know he’s the drizzling shits if Vince has no use for him.

I thought his team with Moss had potential, really.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If this ain’t one of the best t-shirts you have seen in your life, somethins wrong with ya. <a href="https://twitter.com/PWTees?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PWTees</a> <a href="https://t.co/JWJnnYjIUN">https://t.co/JWJnnYjIUN</a> <a href="https://t.co/8kcTPBbPQ7">pic.twitter.com/8kcTPBbPQ7</a></p>&mdash; Heath Slater (@HeathSlaterOMRB) <a href="https://twitter.com/HeathSlaterOMRB/status/1251267489922715650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hell yeah

eric young needs to get out his old don't fire eric shirt

Love Heath so much.

NXT had a guy called Mars Wang and they didnt immediately put the belt on him? Sheer incompetence.

Being rumored that Killian Dain was released as well for NXT cuts.

That would be REAL shitty by them. Yes they fired Sarah Logan while Erik still has his job, but she is American at least.

Killian Dain would lose his visa even though his wife is still working in the States.

Lol, it is not a one or the other kind of thing, not much of a fan of either truthfully.

I thought Conti quit a few months ago?

Looks like I picked a few of these before they happened. That will be $11.99 per month...

*FYI, PLANS CHANGE, AGAIN $11.99 PLEASE :rofl:

Never got into Tanynara Conti. I liked Tino as a tag guy or as someone’s heater (a more competent Alex Riley maybe).

Really hope Zack Ryder ends up in AEW and really has a good run with the company behind him. The fact he got as over as he did all by himself back in 2011 is amazing. Also amazing is how badly WWE didn't capitilize on it. They could have made a lot of money with Ryder if they'd even gotten just a fraction behind him.

Guy with that much passion and ingenuity is the kinda guy I'd wanna employ.

Rusev and Ryder are the 2 hot tickets for sure. Slater will have a following as well.

PWI reporting that Kassius Ohno got released along with a bunch others from WWE's PC.

AEW signing Ryder to be a Shawn Spears type but on the babyface side is fine. But let's be honest, likeable as he may be, he's been booked like a fucking loser his entire run minus a few blips on the radar. They can't push him seriously without looking bush league about it.

Rusev on the other hand should be a priority. A grossly misused talent who's at last had relative recent success. He and Hager also have some history they can play off of.

Considering they haven't really pulled a TNA with any of their recent signings from WWE, doubt that is going to be an issue if they signed Ryder or anyone else from these cuts.

TNA's problem never was them signing a bunch of "WWE Rejects" but them cutting the legs off of pushes and momentum from their own homegrown stars in favor of whoever new they signed from WWE.

Had WWE treated him better, Ryder could have ended up like The Miz in terms of being a very reliable hand and popular midcard star to lean on whenever needed. 2011 Ryder was pretty raw in terms of star talent and power but also showed a lot of potential of becoming an even bigger star had WWE just stayed on course with his star development.

TNA also had like every person they signed cut a promo immediately about how the place they were before sucked and how they joined TNA because it was the real big promotion