Bob Backlund was in attendance at WWE Smackdown on Friday night, as seen in a photo below. Michael Cole and Pat McAfee discussed Backlund being at the show during Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.
Smackdown is at one of the casinos tonight here in Connecticut. I had the TV on and ready to watch it and then somebody emailed me a picture of Bob Backlund marking out for himself to Bruce Prichard in the arena. So we won't be watching Smackdown tonight, almost did though … pic.twitter.com/6pid2TR46K
— Jay P. Ward (@jaypward860) January 8, 2022
Many WWE employees were released this week prior to Smackdown. Triple H is currently the COO of WWE and he is also a veteran in the world of professional wrestling, having competed in several great matches and countless memorable moments during his time as an active in-ring competitor in the company. On the other hand, Vince McMahon is WWE’s Chairman and oversees everything that goes on in the company, right to the very last detail. Roman Reign’s bold message to Vince McMahon was also leaked previously.
WWE have released Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Lana, Ruby Riott, Santana Garrett, and Buddy Murphy. The reason cited was part of budget cuts, and Strowman was being paid $1.2 million per year according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The former WWE Universal Champion signed a new contract in October 2019, so the budget cut regarding Strowman is the WWE’s biggest saving financially from all of the talent cuts in the last year plus during the pandemic. Braun Strowman was fired by WWE for a very surprising reason as well.
Previously, more details regarding WWE’s decision to release Braun Strowman from his contract had been revealed. Braun Strowman’s contract definitely played a role in him getting fired. On top of that, Braun Strowman was viewed as an ‘obsolete’ WWE Superstar and ‘two years past his prime.
That was only just the beginning as WWE continued to release several Superstars o the past few months. Their previous set of releases included the likes of Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Ember Moon, Mia Yim and Nia Jax. It got even worse from there after releasing Jeff Hardy. This week, the company released William Regal, Road Dogg and several other backstage members in NXT as well.
Mike Johnson of PW Insider reported that there is a lot of tension backstage in WWE after the latest round of firings.
“I spoke to a few people who work within Titan Tower last night and this morning and many of them are befuddled, to say the least. Some admitted are angry. Some pointed out that once again, it’s not the company it was a few years ago. One even joked that it’s Nick Khan’s WWE, not Vince McMahon’s company, at this point and wondered what happens if Khan ever does falls out of favor, given that the company has been so gutted under Khan’s vision and should his vision ever end, what happens next and there would be some really awful growing pains in order to shift it to whatever the next gear might be.
A lot of the long-time employees are gone and a lot of people who have migrated over are Nick Khan knights. No one I spoke to yesterday and today were happy. Many were sad. Many were frustrated. Some don’t even know how to guess what might be next.”
