12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

1. ‘I Enjoy Firing People’

But probably nothing could top another year of WWE releasing dozens of wrestlers while posting record revenues.

The names read like a who’s who of WWE the past several years: Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Ruby Riott, Mickie James, the IIconics, Aleister Black, Nia Jax, Keith Lee, Ember Moon, Eva Marie, Karrion Kross, John Morrison, Tegan Nox and Jeff Hardy. (Black and Lee might be the most egregious considering both had just been repackaged and were getting televised pushes when the rug was pulled out from under them.)

Then you have wrestlers who either let their contracts run out or requested their own release: Daniel Bryan, Andrade, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly, and now Toni Storm.

All told, more than 80 wrestlers have departed WWE in 2021, and while many of these releases are due to the company being bloated with talent, it’s undeniable that a lot of these cuts were ignorant and made WWE worse for wear. We saw this firsthand this week with Raw and NXT shorthanded due to COVID concerns, and there weren’t enough wrestlers to nimbly fill out the programs – instead, they blatantly vamped for time to stretch things out.

Worst of all, Vince McMahon delivered a backstage promo recently where he actually said, “I enjoy firing people... during the holidays.” While this is certainly in-character for the evil boss, it was particularly callous given all the releases that had taken place within the past two months alone. It showed a company that is uncaring, unfeeling and toxic.