Brutal Reason For WWE's Mass Roster Releases Revealed (WWE News)
More details on WWE's recent round of mass releases.
With 24 talents departing WWE over the weekend, there are now a few more details on the reason for this round of mass releases.
Per Fightful Select, the reason for the majority of these exits was as a way to make way for fresh talent, be that new arrivals on the main roster or soon-to-be-announced Performance Center signings. There is also the prospect of SmackDown reverting back to two hours at some point in the future.
Talent has speculated all week about cuts, and those involved began to learn about these releases at around 5pm ET on Friday. Though, to be specific, some of these exits are outright releases, whilst others are a case of WWE informing a talent that their contract was not being extended - hence "departures" is a more fitting term.
It's also worth noting that any main roster talents 'released' are still contracted for 90 days, and NXT talents in this position are contracted for 30 days. Of course, for any talent whose contract has expired or is expiring, they're a free agent as soon as that expiration date hits.
For those thinking these departures were a TKO decision, this Fightful report notes that Triple H, Nick Khan, and WWE Talent Relations were the primary decision makers in these departures.
As one would expect, there was said to be a lot of shock backstage to the release of Kairi Sane, given how Kairi was a featured player on TV and involved in a long-standing storyline with Asuka and IYO SKY. On what could be next for the Pirate Princess, Fightful says, "she's expected to land in literally any company that she wants to."
Many fans had been a little surprised by the exit of Santos Escobar, considering the star is currently injured and recently underwent a second surgery. On that topic, WWE used to have a policy against releasing injured talent, but that policy is no longer in place.