WWE SmackDown Star Released?
WWE wrestler intimates they left the company at midnight - release latest!
With all the talent brought back to WWE during the past year, it's rare to see a superstar leave the company. This may have happened with Lacey Evans, who suggested in an Instagram post on Tuesday that her contract was up at the stroke of midnight.
Evans' Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) profiles refer to herself as "FKA WWE Superstar Lacey Evans," with the Insta post instructing people to call her Macey Estrella -- which is also her name on both social media accounts.
Fightful Select reported Tuesday evening that WWE had not confirmed her release, nor had there been any internal notifications about it. Elsewhere, PWInsider Mike Johnson notes to have heard similar talk, but couldn't confirm a release either.
First signed to WWE and assigned to NXT in 2016, Lacey embraced her real-life enlistment with the U.S. Marine Corps, incorporating it into her early persona in the developmental brand, which included a mesh of a southern lady archetype and a 1940s pinup girl. The confusion about what her gimmick or character was would be something that would define Evans' run with WWE, as she would undergo numerous repackaging attempts during a four-year period.
Evans was part of an ill-fated slate of late 2018 NXT callups elevated to shake up the main roster with no real plan on how to use them. That was clearly evident with her initial run as the Sassy Southern Belle, walking out at various points on Raw, SmackDown and PPVs, waving to fans and then leaving after doing nothing of note.
Lacey would immediately be thrust into a title feud with Becky Lynch over the Raw Women's Championship, which she failed to win on three occasions. Evans would then face Natalya in the first women's wrestling match in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel 2019.
In 2021, Evans began a feud with Charlotte Flair where Lacey enlisted Ric Flair as a mentor and flirted with him, but that storyline was cut short by Evans' pregnancy. When she returned in April 2022, she turned face in vignettes talking about her real-life struggles, opening up about her challenges. Naturally, WWE almost immediately turned her heel and sent her to Raw, then shipped her back to SmackDown as a babyface before turning her heel again.
Evans' final gimmick change saw her fall back on her Marine experience (including another series of vignettes), taking on a persona not unlike Sgt. Slaughter and even using his Cobra Clutch. This repackaging also failed to connect her with fans.
Evans' last televised match was a 23 June loss to Charlotte Flair in under 3 minutes on SmackDown. Her final match came two weeks later in a dark match loss to Zelina Vega. There's no word on her post-WWE plans yet, but odds are she will share more details sometime soon.