WWE have released significant names including 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 over the past few months. Their latest set of releases included the likes of Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Ember Moon, Mia Yim and Nia Jax.
According to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE’s performance as of late has been poor as the company has been struggling to sell tickets, especially with champion Brock Lesnar absent last night.
“By the way, this was the smallest crowd for Raw… Second smallest crowd, I believe, since the pandemic. They were just over a little over 3,000 paid. So, that’s pretty brutal. I think the only one that was lower was the San Francisco one.
They had less people than AEW had for Raleigh for Wednesday and Friday’s show. But, WWE… It looked better. They’ll go in there with 4,000 people in a building and… They know how to set it up and everything to where… It looked fine on television. It wasn’t even dark or anything.”
h/t to Ringside News for the transcription.
