How Colt Cabana is being used is how they should use Ryder should they sign him.

In regard to where some of the guys end up...

It's looking like The Good Brothers are likely to go back to work for NJPW, perhaps they will also sign deals with ROH as well, let's not forget that relationship (ROH/NJPW) is still active.

Ryder seems like a lock to sign with AEW as Cody's love seems to always equal opportunity and I can see Tony being a mark for Ryder.

Miro (Rusev) is the most interesting. Does AEW need another big WWE star? If they do he would be a great choice. I can't see him working long term anywhere else unless he decides to work NWA and all the Indies instead of sign a major deal. I remember at times NJPW fans saying they'd like to see him there. I would too but also wherever he goes he's got to bring out a new character. Probably the most interesting release to watch on the list.

Lio Rush ... I'm not sure he will continue wrestling but people seem to think he will work NJPW, forgetting that he has a lot of heat in ROH and they will likely prevent that contact from happening.

Chris Hero ... If he doesn't sign with AEW I'd say he is fine working for Gabe and Evolve and all of the Euro and US Indy bookings. Though he should probably be a priority for AEW.

Drake Maverick, if he is really released I can see him anywhere. Likely Impact and AAA but possibly NWA. He would be a great manager there.

EC3 likely would be best in Impact. Why would AEW want him when they have MJF? It would be cool to see him takeover the Dynasty stable in MLW if that was where he wound up.

Rowan should get signed to a contract. He's not much of an ROH type but he'd be a giant there. He could also be really effective in NWA. However with his close friendship to Brodie Lee I wouldn't be surprised or mind to see him in AEW. He was improving a lot this past year.

Heath Slater... Really one of the all around best. Never really been highlighted as a great wrestler but he has it in him. I'd really like to see him be reinvented in ROH and have a big main event run there before returning to WWE within 2 years jacked as fuck to take the WWE Championship thus fulfilling the 3MB Monkeys Paw theory.

Rusev would actually work great in the NEVER division as Suzuki-gun's new bruiser.

Somehow NXT UK managed to be the only brand not affected by WWE's roster cuts.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just spoke to a source who has confirmed that WWE NXT UK will be making no cuts to its roster at this time. Also the roster are getting paid in full and will not be furloughed as they are all self employed!</p>&mdash; Tony Quant (@TopRopeTony) <a href="https://twitter.com/TopRopeTony/status/1251807188689043456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Also turns out whatever fear Vince had regarding WWE's tv deals ended up being unfounded since FOX and USA Network reportedly told WWE they don't need to run live shows for contractual reasons during the coronavirus. Makes these cuts look even worse if they had any relation to Vince's tv paranoia.

Think the NXT UK guys earn peanuts in comparison to the main rosters.

They also work in a country with stricter labor standards and that "independent contractor" shit might not actually fly.

Seems WWE is considering rehiring Sarah Logan due to a lot of people within the company have been fighting to get her job back.

She's probably the one being mentioned as someone who was fired showing up on raw tonight

Sarah Logan fucking sucks.

I know some of those releases asked for it, but WWE really should rehire a few of the cuts.

Maverick
Slater
Gallows and Anderson
Ryder and Hawkins
And I'm cool with Sarah Logan being rehired too because they don't have that deep of a woman's division.

That said, if any of them have a better opportunity like Ryder to AEW, then they should tell Vince to go to hell.

None of the releases are really surprising. I’d say maybe Gallows & Anderson, who we’re basically sweeteners for AJ, but I guess them getting run off by Taker in the main event of Mania night one is kind of a farewell.

The agents contained the most “surprises,” but apparently they could be brought back. Planning out matches in this environment might suck, and there could be geographical issues with a Lance Storm, or health issues/personal time requested for guys like Finlay or Kurt Angle. It might be somewhat “voluntary.” Take one for the team now and be brought back when things are back to running. But they could also just be cycling some guys out that aren’t working in a role or whatever. Lance Storm has been doing awesome work though, so I find that surprising, I guess.

Yeah Gallows and Anderson caught me off guard too. But the one that shocked me the most is still Rusev. Lana is still there and Rusev is going to be a boon for their competition. Even if they had nothing for Rusev I am surprised they didn't hold onto him anyways like they always do with people.

Rusev, EC3, Lio Rush, The Revival, Mike and Maria all asked for their releases at various points last year.

Gallows and Anderson indicated they were content to let their contracts expire last year before WWE gave them giant contracts and promised them another AJ run.

While the talent who had asked for their releases might not have all have wanted to lose their jobs during a pandemic, it's clear that factored into some of WWE's decisions on who to let go.

Someone in Creative apparently forgot Sarah Logan was released and not furloughed since she was originally booked to be on last night's RAW before those plans got scrapped.

Meltzer speculated that despite the releases, WWE might still try and squeeze a few more appearances by those let go during their 90-days no compete clause.

If so, it likely would be with people who haven't hit their downsides yet since PWI reported a few days ago that WWE doesn't actually have to pay talent for those 90 days if a talent already earned their guaranteed downside before the release. Was something that got revealed from The Revival's contract situation earlier.

Apparently WWE's trademark of Erick Rowan has verbiage indicating that the name represents Joseph Ruud (his real name). Normally that verbiage is used only for guys like Karl Anderson, EC3, Eric Young who came to the company with "known" names and provided consent for WWE to trademark it for usage in merch, games, etc but because their names are tied to them specifically, it allows them to keep those names when they leave the company.

Most WWE ring name trademarks have the verbiage saying "this trademark does not represent a specific individual" which effectively blocks the name from being used elsewhere. It's also why for the longest time, everyone got re-named.

Might mean Rowan snuck in at some point when the original trademark lapsed and now he'll get to just keep the name if he wanted.

Apparently Kendo Kashin thinks his release from WWE as part of last week's cuts had to do more with him recently going public with how the coronavirus was affecting his job at the PC.

Also revealed he currently does not have health insurance due to his release.

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/k...he-was-cut-wwe

Rusev I had figured to leave anyway. WWE have also seen what AEW did with Brodie Lee. They know Rusev’s personality and probably know he won’t be able to stay away from the bad comedy and will probably go in as a hairdresser or something. Because remember he got the unapproved haircut? Hey...hey...

“Asking for your release” doesn’t necessarily mean you want to get released, often it’s a “use me or release me” deal. Definitely in the case of someone like Bennett.

I think that's true, but I think at some point Bennett would have just wanted the fuck out, lol.

I watched an interview with him the other day. He basically says he never wanted to go, he wanted to work, and if wanting to work means having to go then...

He said after his request for release “they worked it out”, I’d imagine that was the point that they did the “Who’s Maria’s Baby Daddy?” angle that never got any payoff, and the 24/7 stuff, which eventually fizzled out again. He also said Maia never asked for her release.

But yeah, he’d definitely want out eventually to go work somewhere that actually wanted to use him. Back to ROH or Impact would have been good moves for him. Maybe spots in Japan, though difficult with a young family. He’d be a shoo-in as a Bullet Club guy (if the BC is still going).

Has anyone ever been in the ‘main event’ (night one of WrestleMania last match so classifying this as main event) of WrestleMania and then been released before appearing on TV again?

Lawrence Taylor

Not Mania, but Warrior was fired after being in the main event of Summerslam. That was in 1991 I believe.

Sid only made a couple appearances after WM13

lol I'm not even saying this to be cheeky, but WM is right before softball season.

Also, didn't Sid leave immediately after headlining Wrestlemania 8, probably for the same reason?

<iframe width="1129" height="635" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pTTiQ6K_kbE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My dream match

I remember he Scorpio, Furnas and Lafon all got into a fairly bad car accident shortly after. Sid of course played it up and the WWF got tired of Sid being Sid

Dunno why, but I thought Sid looked even more badass and "legit" with the age. Just the way he carried himself and was chewing gum the whole time.... dunno, it worked for me, especially compared with the other legends who were coming back, it was like "whoa, this guy could come back right now and I'd buy him as fully legit"

But what about WM8 @ Gertner?

He's kept himselfin great shape and he looks grizzled and worn, which only adds to his psychotic leader of the world gimmick. I love Sid.

Sid could have been an incredible draw in the WWF if he wasn't such a fucking Sid. That late 1996 run was the fucking tits.

Based on WWE's financial report earlier today, WWE releasing a sizeable portion of their roster and furloughing a lot of staff looks even worse than before.

Still made over $100 million in revenues for the fiscal 1st quarter compared to last year.

Even WWE's dividend ended up being higher than needed if WWE was that desperate to save money for coronavirus reasons. Meltzer mentioned earlier in the week that WWE could have cut it in half and used that saved money to easily pay all the talent they released for at least the next 2 years.

I guess the argument is that WWE has always been pretty ruthless with cutting people, no matter the circumstances. There's a reason they tell people to have other avenues for their career path before getting into wrestling.

Not condoning Vince's actions (I think they're repulsive and that he's repulsive), but these people should know who and what they're dealing with. If they're crying injustice, my sympathies only go so far, since this isn't what I'd call a blindside. Times are tough for everyone right now, but wrestling has proven that it's not the kind of career that's there for you when the chips are down. To think otherwise would show painful levels of naivety.


Even paying people to sit at home wasn't done to "take care of them," but done as a business move to hurt the value of said wrestlers and other companies that could use them. In wrestling, you are nothing more than a commodity, especially in the WWE. It has always been that way and will always be that way.

I've seen a lot of the rumor mongers speculating there are some big names going to be released soon. We're talking Roman Reigns, among others. Although in fairness they say its because Roman is going to pull a Rock and go Hollywood. He wasn't the only big name they were talking about though. I'll believe it when I see it.

Yeah I doubt it. Pretty sure the whole point of these cuts was to trim off the people who get stuck in catering while keeping the known talent.

Exactly right, they didn't release anybody who wasn't low card or already on their way out other than Gallows and Anderson.

They got big contracts, probably the most Vince ever paid for a tag team, almost entirely based on AJ wanting to have a real run with them in his faction.

It's still surprising they got released so soon after signing that big contract, but that doesn't mean Vince is gonna release any big names.

Certainly not Roman Reigns. Vince will keep him on payroll the same way he does Rock, Vena, etc. Even is Roman retired today, Vince is gonna keep paying him just to ensure he is always at least attached to WWE.

What’s the deal with pay for Anderson & Gallows? Do they get paid through their 90 day no compete? Or do they get the downside of the contract? Or immediate dismissal with no further pay?

Most likely get paid the remainder of what was guaranteed considering they signed new contracts last year for 5 years in length.

With the Revival, them not getting paid was more due to both guys being in the last year of their deals and had already hit the guaranteed amount owed to them.

I really doubt they're going to get paid the full five years of their deal. WWE always has out clauses and the like.