WWE expected to grant releases to a few wrestlers soon

By Gokul Nair - November 16, 2019

WWE has been at the receiving end of a lot of release requests with Sin Cara being the latest name. The company has been reluctant to grant the releases with the fear of the released stars potentially jumping ship to AEW.

As noted on Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Sin Cara is opting to join the Combate Americas MMA where former WWE star Alberto Del Rio serves as an executive and also a fighter.

Other names include Luke Harper and Mike Kanellis. Harper has to serve a few more months to make up for the time he was out injured meanwhile Kanellis is expected to sit out the rest of his contract while accepting offers for speaking appearances.

The company is expected to grant releases to the wrestlers who will not appear in the AEW with Sin Cara w=being one of the few names.

F. Loyd B. Pippin

The only problem I have with that is that WWE doesn’t honor contracts that don’t benefit them anymore. HHH has signed a ton of developmental wrestlers that they cannot use and it’s becoming like WCW at the end where guys are paid to do nothing. They can’t keep signing people and paying them to not be on television and expect to be profitable. WWE isn’t going to deliver on the promises it is making to a lot of their talent, but get to dictate the terms of releases. I do blame the wrestlers since they should not be signing these 5 year deals trying to cash out with WWE. But WWE isn’t being fiscally responsible in the grand scheme of things.
Daniel Schein

I think they have to approach it on a case by case basis. Sin Cara recently signed a multi year deal which is kind of baffling. I’m assuming when he bombed with that Carolina pairing, he then got fed up and hit social media to deflect the blame. Sin Cara is in his forties and unlikely to accomplish anything to change the game in AEW. Mike and Maria also oddly recently signed five year contracts, and you can’t really blame WWE for their failings. I enjoy both, but her first pregnancy killed their original run and now it’s basically another repeat with a new kid on the way. The cuck gimmick is probably demeaning to the poor guy, but at least he has gotten tv time. I could see he and Maria having success in AEW after enough time has passed for people to forget the WWE run. She is highly underrated as a character and it’s too bad we only got small glimpses of her brilliance. Luke Harper is the only talent on this recent list I can see blowing up huge in AEW, where the roster really lacks diversity and could use some athletic big men. Harper is one guy who’s never truly been able to showcase his skills as a singles star, aside from the all too brief IC Title run. If booked right he could be a main event player on par with a Bray Wyatt.
Rinn13

There’s also zero benefit in WWE keeping wrestlers who 1. Don’t want to be there, and 2. They don’t actually plan on using anyway. Signing wrestlers just to leave them rotting on the vine, to keep them from “being stars elsewhere” has to be the stupidest business practice I’ve ever heard.
CC

Rumours are suggesting they may go the route of granting releases under the proviso that they cannot go to certain promotions. I have seen people losing their minds over this like it is something new or unexpected.
Simple fact is that these guys are under contract and if they want out of that contract there has to be some give on their part as this is essentially a business negotiation that will benefit them and has no benefit to WWE.
And as I say, this is nothing new. When Brock left WWE back in the day, he had a lot of years left on his contract and the agreement was that WWE would let him go under the proviso that he does not wrestle in the USA for what would have been the remainder of his contract, hence the reason he went to Japan after his football career bombed.

I am not suggesting for a second that it is a particularly nice thing to do, but from a business stand point it makes all the sense in the world for WWE.
Sparti Love

If WWE was smart they would just release them.. No one would care if Harper, Sin Cara or Kanellis showed up at AEW or anywhere else. Save the money and drop the dead weight