4 Ups & 7 Downs From NXT Spring Breakin'

4. Paying Lip Service To Departed Colleagues

Duke Hudson Indi Hartwell
WWE

This item really doesn’t fault the performers, or even the writers, but we have to ding the handling of some of the most visible NXT superstars who were released last week.

WWE inexplicably released several performers and had the gall to once again cite “budget cuts” as the reason. Some of them were in the middle of televised angles. Diamond Mine lost their mouthpiece in Malcolm Bivens. When we looked in on them, we saw Roderick Strong berating the Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile, reminding them that he’s the leader of the group. It was a completely different tenor for this group that was starting to feel like an integral part of NXT.

We immediately cut to Indi Hartwell looking at her empty ring finger, because her husband Dexter Lumis had been sent packing. In walked Duke Hudson, whose girlfriend Persia Pirotta also was cut. The two just looked at each other, said nothing and started to look like they were going to kiss before retching and going their separate directions.

Yes, a marriage ended and it was played for laughs with no explanation. Because what else can you do when management cuts the writers’ legs out from under them?

And this company continues to make money hand over fist… most likely because they keep cutting wrestlers.

Advertisement
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.