WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has the final say in anything and everything that goes on in the company, for better or worse. He is also known to do crazy things from time to time. Vince McMahon also sabotaged Jon Moxley’s matches.
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.
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 latest set of releases included the likes of Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Ember Moon, Mia Yim and Nia Jax. Now even all Hit Row members were released as well.
According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that Top Dolla had backstage heat in WWE. Vince McMahon saw him as the star of the group as well.
“While he came across well on television, he rubbed a ton of people the wrong way in NXT and was getting the same reputation on the main roster. He was the one Vince McMahon saw as the star of the group because of his size.
Once they decided to get rid of him, the other two likely were caught in the crossfire. Miles really wasn’t going to do anything on the main roster without the group. Strickland is not their type as they are looking for bigger guys, and Francis not being with them pretty much doomed them.”
