8 WWE Superstars Released Today In Mass Firings

At the time of writing, no less than 8 WWE superstars have lost their jobs in a "spring cleaning" of mass firings.

Here's the long list of talent who have been released from their contracts today and are now on the unemployment line...

8. Damien Sandow

Easily the most depressing (albeit, expected) release of them all, Damien Sandow joined WWE's main roster in 2012 with the gimmick of a pompous intellectual who vowed to educate the company's unwashed masses.

He played his character to perfection, embarking on an undefeated streak and eventually forming a tag team with Cody Rhodes known as "Team Rhodes Scholars." Sandow and Rhodes were unable to capture gold, and in the 2013 World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank match, the Killer Kowalski trainee turned on Rhodes to win the briefcase.

Rhodes subsequently turned face and the two feuded, with Sandow coming out the worse for wear. He then attempted to cash in his briefcase on World Heavyweight Champion John Cena on Raw, but was defeated. Sandow floundered in 2014 and soon adopted a gimmick where he began to dress up as other wrestlers and personalities.

That led to him becoming "Damien Mizdow," the official stunt double for The Miz. Mizdow would emulate his employer's matches from outside the ring, soon becoming one of the most popular acts in the company. He and Miz won the WWE Tag Team Titles, but Miz soon became jealous of his stunt double's popularity and began to mistreat Mizdow.

They finally split, with Mizdow poised for a good babyface run, but Miz won the blowoff match for the rights to the Miz gimmick. Following that, Sandow adopted a short-lived "Macho Man-dow" character that saw him emulate Randy Savage.

He eventually returned to his original name, and despite receiving good crowd reactions, made few appearances in the months leading up to his release. Sandow had previously worked for WWE in the 2000s, wrestling on Smackdown as Idol Stevens.