The WWE made a shocking announcement recently. It was reported that a long-list of top superstars were being released from the company. This came after the company was trying to deal with the crisis of the outbreak. They were looking to make things right with their employees, through “cutbacks and furloughs”.
It was a mixed bag for Vince McMahon, who had seen some major ups and downs already. Earlier, he was assigned a prestigious task by the President and his friend, Donaldo Trump.
JUST NOW: Adam Silver, Rob Manfred, Roger Goodell, Gary Bettman, Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones, Dana White, and Vince McMahon are part of a large group that will help advise on how to restart the economy, President Trump says.
— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) April 14, 2020
However, it seems that things just went out-of-hand for him and his family. The problems kept growing and the solutions didn’t come. His week included a few tough situations and for some reason, they decided to release so multiple superstars.
https://twitter.com/KingZairois/status/1250528133020880902
The WWE was declared as an “essential service” after Linda paid $18.5m to the Florida governor as charity. This is what put more lives in danger. However, what followed could not escape the wrath of the fans. Some assume that Vince lost his cool and fired a lot of stars. These were the same stars that had worked hard for the company for years if not more.
All of a sudden, they were termed unwanted. They were already going through a tough phase. Things went from bad to worse for them and they couldn’t do anything about it.
The list included names like-
https://twitter.com/ItsRileyPM/status/1250529579791454221
To add to that, recently more members of the WWE family were let go off. These included-
https://twitter.com/ItsRileyPM/status/1250529580588433414
The news came as a total shock for the fans (Kanellis, not Kinellis). The fans were angry and the company and its chairman lost their respect.
Some reactions suggested-
Breaking News: The WWE Universe has requested its release.#wwereleases
— TheColdCanvas (@TheColdCanvas) April 15, 2020
Let’s just take stock that (according to Forbes)
$3m Goldberg
$10m Brock Lesnar
$2.1m for Shane McMahon
$15m Tyson Fury
$3.5m Bobby Lashley
$5m Cain VelasquezAround $30m could have been saved last year #wwereleases
— Jamesy (@jamesydraws) April 15, 2020
https://twitter.com/goldengraham89/status/1250523835025240066
Though it was just not right to release anyone at this point of time, here are three essential superstars/teams whose loss will hurt the company the most-
Lio Rush
The big-mouth, big-talent superstar proved himself across multiple brands. Staring off 205 Live, Rush ended up as Bobby Lashley’s manager on RAW due to the latter’s lack of mike skills.
He was doing well in NXT and competing for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship in recent times. His matches with the likes of Angel Garza and Jordan Devlin filled the fans with great energy.
However, it seems that Lio wasn’t still not liked enough to be retained. He was let go of and this was surely a shocker.
The OC (Luke Gallows and Carl Anderson)
Two big games, Luke Gallows and Carl Anderson. The ‘best tag team in the world’, the OC will no longer be part of the WWE roster. Slowly gaining momentum, they were released much like The Revival (who wanted to leave). This game as a shock, as they were slowly growing in stature with AJ Styles.
It seems that the company decided that they could function better without their presence. What a shocking call to let go of a second top tag-team!!
Rusev
Though it was always expected that Rusev was going soon, the company’s stand on his future was always dicey. They had plans for him, which got erased due to the whole outbreak. Rusev wasn’t happy with a lot of things that the WWE did.
Rusev tweeted a few weeks back said that he was willing to pledge 20k of his own money to help pay staff without pay in WWE.
Today they released him, I feel fucking sick.
You're a top man @RusevBUL
— Fiending For Followers ‼️ (@Fiend4FolIows) April 15, 2020
He even pledged to help staff who were not being paid by the WWE. This could have triggered a reaction and the company responded harshly. They let go of the Bulgarian Brute. Let’s see what Lana decides to do now.
