Every WWE Wrestler Released In 2020
A round-up of those that found WWE untenable, and the company doing the unthinkable.
What an awful list to even have to exist.
Describing the rank hideousness of 2020 was old news by May, but this came after an April in which a substantial number of wrestlers were told by the multi-billion dollar wrestling organisation that there simply wasn't the budget to keep them around during a time where virtually nobody else could employ them to wrestle.
Of all the years where WWE could have proven itself stable corporately, it instead underwent the biggest personnel change in over a decade. The list below covers in-ring exits, some mutual (though very few), and even that undersells just how substantial the shift was this year.
Agents and officials were released or furloughed in enormous number, including those thought lifers such as Gerald Brisco, Tony Chimel and Mike Chioda. Gone too from their backstage positions were the likes of Kurt Angle, Mike Rotundo, Lance Storm, Serena Deeb and others. Out front, beloved hosts and announcers Cathy Kelley, Renee Young, Mauro Ranallo all bid farewell, literally changing the face of the show further.
And all of this after Vince McMahon terminated the contracts of George Barrios and Michelle Wilson in January. Then, it was a blockbuster, but did he know a little more than he was letting on about what was to come? Or were they the ones begging loudest that he not use The Big Show anymore?
Unlike him, here's who you probably won't see on the end-of-year Monday Night Raw wrap-up...
43. Jazzy Gabert
The first of a few mutually agreed releases from the year, Jazzy Gabert was advised that the main roster wasn't interested in what she had to offer in January 2020. Having not made it beyond NXT UK in the six months she'd been on screens, she elected not renew her deal.