-- WWE went through a modest roster cut today, trimming wrestlers from all three brands as well as those who hadn't really been used regularly in a while. Below are further news and notes regarding the cuts:
- The releases began early in the morning and went into the afternoon. The names of those who were being cut were kept relatively close to the vest as people would normally be in the know were unaware. In recent times, WWE has also refrained from posting any messages on WWE.com so that confused matters a bit more than usual too.
- While those who were cut were told of the news via phone call, there was no official heads up from WWE officials to the roster that these releases were coming so many of them only found out online and through social media that some of their friends were gone.
- Fightfulselect.com reports that there was some frustration amongst talent that WWE first announced a new $1.4 billion TV rights deal for Smackdown and then the same morning started slashing the roster. One wrestler noted that WWE released Emma only hours after announcing that they were bringing Elimination Chamber to her home country, Australia.
- Many on the roster are of the belief that WWE timed the cuts alongside the announcement of the Smackdown TV rights deal in order to minimize the negative financial impact on the company. TKO's stock dropped from $96 to $89 after the announcement that Smackdown would be leaving FOX.
- WWE sources told Fightful that any sort of mass roster cuts were not discussed under Triple H so the conclusion is that they were directly related to the merger with Endeavor.
- Most of the wrestlers who were released have the regular 90-day non-compete clause attached, prohibiting them from working for any other wrestling promotion during that time.
- Many wrestlers backstage believed that no mass cuts were going to be happening and WWE would simply let contracts expire as they have been doing recently.