Mike Chioda, Erick Rowan, And Sarah Logan Released By WWE

The WWE cuts keeping on coming.

Apr 15, 2020 April 15th, 2020

The last couple of hours have been ones filled with utter insanity for the wrestling community.

Following a WWE conference call where the financial concerns of the company were revealed – and that major changes were to be made to the structure of WWE – a slew of releases have been announced. Now, three more names can be added to those future endeavoured by WWE on this most infamous of days.

Within the last few minutes, Sarah Logan, Erick Rowan, and long-time referee Mike Chioda have joined the list of those let out of their contract by WWE.

Logan’s time under the WWE umbrella will be best known for her time as one-third of The Riott Squad alongside Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan. The former ‘Scary’ Mary Dobson was last seen on WWE TV just this past Monday in a losing effort to Shayna Baszler in a Money in the Bank qualifying match.

Erick Rowan spider lol imagine liking this — WWE

For Erick Rowan, he was part of Bray Wyatt’s Wyatt Family stable before branching out on his own. That singles run didn’t go all that well, and the hulking grappler would instead find further success by re-teaming with Luke Harper to form The Bludgeon Brothers. From there, he’d end up aligned with Daniel Bryan in a rivalry with Roman Reigns, but the past few months have seen this former WWE Tag Team Champion involved in a storyline involving a naff-looking spider.

As for Chioda, he has been an absolute staple of WWE for so, so many years. To be precise, he actually debuted with the company back in 1989 and went on to officiate some of the biggest matches in WWE history – such as Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV, The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8, Triple H vs. Batista at WrestleMania 21, Triple H vs. John Cena at WrestleMania 22, John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 23, John Cena vs. The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII, Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31, and was the referee for the iconic SmackDown ‘ring collapse’ match between Big Show and Brock Lesnar.

Reports indicate that WWE is now phoning talent and staff individually to make them aware of their releases, so expect more releases throughout the rest of the day.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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