What WWE Told The Roster Was Reason For Yesterday's Firings

John Laurinaitis was tasked with informing the current WWE roster of yesterday's releases.

by Andrew Pollard
Braun Strowman
WWE.com

In further fallout from yesterday’s six shocking WWE releases, now comes an update on what the rest of the company were told about these firings.

As per PWInsider, John Laurinaitis yesterday sent a text message to the entire Raw and SmackDown rosters to inform them of this latest batch of WWE releases.

Said text message read:

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“Due to budget cuts the following talent were released today. Braun Strowman, Lana, Buddy Murphy, Santana Garrett, Ruby Riott, and Aleister Black – John Laurinaitis”

This again reiterates that these releases were part of the “budget cuts” reasoning WWE has attributed to the ten firings in May, the nine releases in April, the 100+ axings in April 2020 and several other releases during the past year or more.

Of course, these purported budget cuts are all being made at the same time that WWE is bringing in record revenue and experiencing huge profit margins.

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You'd like to think that this recent round of releases has stopped at six, yet WWE has shown in recent history that such mass releases can often be dragged out over days and weeks - meaning it remains to be seen whether any further "budget cuts" will be made in the foreseeable future.

Senior Writer
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.