31 Wrestlers & Staff WWE Just Released
3. Erick Rowan
Not even a high-profile angle with Daniel Bryan or spin-off feud with Roman Reigns could save Erick Rowan from the axe. His release is one of the bigger surprises on the list, if only because he'd been a near-constant presence on television as a spider-loving heel who squashed everyone in his path up until recently.
To tweak an old phrase, the spider (not the cat) is out of the bag - Rowan is WWE history.
On the surface, the former Wyatt Family and Bludgeon Brother man has everything Vince McMahon's organisation would look for. He's naturally big and imposing, has an eerie presence about him and is a neat fit for the tag-team or bodyguard scenes. Even that size couldn't spare him contractual termination.
Maybe that spider will show up in AEW? OK, maybe not.