Who Is To Blame For WWE's Roster Releases: Triple H Or TKO? (WWE News)

Triple H? Nick Khan? TKO? Who was responsible for WWE's recent round of mass releases...

WWE Performance Center Triple H
WWE

With plentiful speculation over who was the driving force behind the recent round of WWE departures, there is now an update on all of this.

Speaking on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that "nobody above Paul Levesque is saying who to cut."

Some fans had suggested it was someone at TKO who made the call on which talents to release, but, as Meltzer puts it, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel isn't "sitting there saying we have to fire Zelina and Kairi. By and large, the decision maker, for good or for bad here, is Paul."

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The Observer founder also compared this to years gone by, when various people and parties were blamed for a talent's release, when, in reality, the decision came solely from Vince McMahon.

Meltzer did suggest that Nick Khan might be involved in this situation, floating the idea that Triple H may have a salary cap of sorts to work with, and that Khan would be the one setting that cap. And so, Triple H would be the one responsible for making sure WWE stays under that cap, which would involve releasing talent to maintain that figure.

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Overall, the main thing to take away from this is that the person making the decision on who to release is Triple H.

For those who may have missed it, 24 talents departed WWE on Friday, with some of the bigger names being Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Kairi Sane, Santos Escobar, the Motor City Machine Guns, and the Wyatt Sicks.

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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/Saints, Jamie Hayter, 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.