How WWE Failed EVERY Wrestler Released In 2021

Think of any wrestler let go by WWE this year. No matter who it is, it won't be difficult to come up with at least one way the company let them down.

The system's rigidity has been killing potential money-drawing stars since the '90s. Rather than capitalising on the attributes that once made him one of the most exciting rookies in wrestling history, WWE decreed that because Lex Luger was big, yolked, and blonde, he should be Hulk Hogan's replacement. Goldberg came into WWE and immediately started working longer matches that exposed his blitzkrieg skillset. In NXT, Kenta Kobayashi went from a concussive headhunter as KENTA to the meekest babyface this side of Ricochet as Hideo Itami.

Like those listed above (and the countless others deemed to be "failures" because McMahon brand booking is incapable of adapting to a performer's strengths), the WWE system failed Andrade, Wight, Black, and co.

But even when the system works for you, as it did for Braun in 2017, there's every chance WWE will still screw you.

Strowman was hotter than the sun back then. Through his well-received feud with Roman Reigns, Braun opened his own window to the top of the pile, delivering at levels far exceeding his experience level in the ring and on the microphone. The rising monster was over. "I'm not finished with you!" and "get these hands" were emphatic, memorable, and rapturously met as soon as they left Strowman's mouth. There and then, WWE could have minted Braun as a star.

He had become everything they could possibly want. The system had worked!

Until it stopped.

Strowman had cooled off by 2018. His window had closed. Now, he's on the scrapheap.

And none of it is his fault.