10 Most Mind-Boggling Releases WWE Just Announced

3. Nia Jax

Keith Lee Mia Yim
Instagram, @niajaxwwe

If repeatedly injuring superstars with her sloppy ring work wasn’t enough to give Nia Jax the axe, you have to wonder what finally got her tossed.

Reportedly, Jax was cut because she hadn’t been vaccinated for COVID, but let’s set that aside.

Jax has long been a lightning rod for criticism among fans, many of whom contend that she held onto her position in the company because of her relationship to The Rock. Nia was pushed hard and quickly in NXT because of her unique look and size, despite being pretty green. She was promoted to the main roster and continued to get significant pushes, even as her work was criticized for being unsafe at times.

Even during her most recent run as a tag team with Shayna Baszler, it almost always was Baszler who took the pinfalls in their losses, as if to protect Jax. It felt like WWE would never give up on Nia and continually push her because of her look - even if she ran afoul of the company's golden girl, Charlotte Flair.

That makes her release even more mind-blowing. Either a bean-counter finally determined she wasn’t worth the cost, or something else finally pushed Nia out the door.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.