TKO released several WWE superstars, and that caused a stir of emotions among the fans. The emotions heightened when The New Day announced that they were parting ways with the company.
TKO asked the global juggernaut to cut millions in wages, which resulted in negotiated deals. Whoever did not agree with the restructured pay was being released. This is what happened with The New Day when they refused to agree to the restructured pay.
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Now, Dave Meltzer has reported that TKO released numerous superstars this year to make up for the lack of releases last year. The company wanted to be the “good guy” after purchasing WWE, and did not focus on releases. However, this year, those releases caught up.
“The story on the cuts being so many – there’s a couple of reasons behind it. What happened is essentially, last year, because they had basically just taken over the company and they were trying to be ‘good guys,’ so they didn’t order a lot of cuts last year, they kinda held back. So it’s kinda like a catch-up,” explained Meltzer.
WWE SmackDown talents suffered more since the show was being cut down from three hours to two hours, so there was less time to have talent during the show.
“The number that were brought up, and additional names from SmackDown, the reason being that SmackDown at the end of this month, SmackDown is going to two hours, so therefore there is an hour less time of television, so therefore there is less time to put as many people on, so therefore there would be additional cuts on the SmackDown side. So that’s the story behind the number of cuts,” wrote Dave Meltzer.
TKO wanted WWE to clear the roster after NXT call-ups
In the same report, it is claimed that TKO cut talent from the developmental team that WWE was convinced wouldn’t make it to the main roster.
Furthermore, Dave Meltzer revealed that after NXT call-ups, TKO wanted WWE to remove a similar number of people to balance the main roster.
“Developmental, they’re adding new people to developmental, the people who they’d figured aren’t gonna make it, those were the ones cut. The main roster cuts, essentially it was two things. Number one, all the people who were brought up from NXT that got spots, essentially they wanted to remove a similar amount of people. They went to creative. It was creative that made the call as to who. They said ‘Who are you not planning on using? Give us X number of names.’,” said Dave Meltzer.
The top talents, such as Roman Reigns, are said to be safe from any pay restructure despite speculations that The OTC may have been approached with such a deal.
For now, WWE releases have stopped.
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Edited by Shuvangi Sen Chaudhury