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.
They then fired the likes of Jeff Hardy, Toni Storm quit and a couple of weeks ago, WWE fired William Regal, Road Dogg and various other NXT backstage members who were hired by Triple H to manage the brand.
WWE is also not a fan of AEW’s reliance on violence. As revealed in a Toronto Star article, WWE criticized AEW for their violent matches.
“If you look at the gory self-mutilation that bloodied several women in the December 31 event on TNT, it quickly becomes clear that these are very different businesses.
We’re hoping that they don’t go on with blood and guts and gory things that they have been doing, which would be bad, And I can’t imagine, I can’t speak for TNT, but I can’t imagine they’d put up with that.”
