Backstage News On WWE Releasing Talent Due To COVID-19 Vaccine, Age Also A Factor?, More
There's a belief that more WWE Superstars were released on Thursday night due to their COVID-19 vaccination status.
As noted, WWE released the following 18 talents on Thursday night and cited budget cuts for the departures – Nia Jax, Karrion Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux, "B-Fab" Briana Brandy, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, Eva Marie, Keith Lee, Mia Yim, Harry Smith, Oney Lorcan, Franky Monet, Ember Moon, Trey Baxter, Jessi Kamea, Jeet Rama, Zayda Ramier, and Katrina Cortez. It was reported before that 4 or 5 talents were let go, in-part, due not being vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus, with The New York Post reporting that one of the reasons Jax was let go was her COVID-19 vaccine status.
In an update, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that some of the wrestlers were released due to them refusing to get vaccinated, and not being big enough stars to get away with that.
It was noted that while word going around says 4 or 5 wrestlers were cut due to their vaccine status, one WWE source said the number was much larger than that. It was noted that main roster talents cannot tour foreign countries without being vaccinated, which creates potential issues for the company.
The talents who were reportedly cut due to their vaccination status were reportedly told they were being let go due to budget cuts, not the vaccine.
Age also likely played a part in the decision to release some of the 18 wrestlers as the company is well aware that they don't have enough talents in their 20s on TV, and are looking at recruiting bigger, younger, and people with more of a legitimate athletic background moving forward. The report also notes that the new directives on hiring new female talents is that recommendations are 25 or younger.
It was also said that virtually all of the veteran wrestlers that aren't being used on either WWE NXT or main roster TV right now were discussed for potential releases over the past week. There is also talk that of the talents being signed by WWE beginning in the new year, that they will be signed to 60-day trial contracts to see the rate they are able to improve at, except for top prospects. The idea is that they will not be signed to full-time deals if they don't show improvement.
While WWE did not publicly announce last night's releases on their website, but they did issue their classic "future endeavors" line in response to an inquiry from The New York Post.
"We wish them the best in their future endeavors," WWE said in the statement.
Stay tuned for more on the WWE releases.