10 Most Shocking WWE Releases Ever
1. Steve Lombardi
Steve Lombardi was such a nailed-on WWE lifer that he became and on and off-screen punchline reference for it.
As late as 2013, The Brooklyn Brawler was trotted out as the company's most famous jobber, and as recent as 2018 he was considered enough of a legend to bring back for yet another insufferable Raw ratings grab. Little of this mattered when he was binned in 2016 after 33 years with the group.
Reporting on it for PWInsider, Mike Johnson called it the "perhaps the most shocking WWE release ever", noting that;
Lombardi had been a far more valuable asset to the company behind the scenes, where he worked his way up to overseeing and producing promos. Lombardi was the person that every talent, upon trying out, had to cut promos for and his praise or criticism would factor greatly into whether the talent would get a bigger look from the company.
WWE's star creation machine had been in terminal decline since the early-2000s, but that's been expedited over the last few years specifically. Lombardi's layoff may be even more shortsighted now than it first looked.
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