Yesterday, a report was posted which indicated that a possible reason WWE may have let the Wyatt Sicks and Aleister Black go was due to TKO officials not appreciating characters with darker shades to them, with the report also citing the Undertaker's continued portrayal as the American Badass rather than the Deadman.
In this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer seems to refute those rumors indicating that according to sources within the company, the decision to release the Wyatts, Black and Zelina Vega was due to the fact that creatively, the company felt that there was nothing more they could get out of them, specifically that the Wyatt Sicks had "run its course."
His report added that WWE initially saw the Wyatts as a short-term idea that was basically a tribute to Bray Wyatt. When it went over big, they extended their plans but over the long-term, the gimmicks being used were severely limited from a creative standpoint.
As for Black, when he left WWE for AEW, the company recruited him hard to come back and once he left AEW and re-joined WWE, they never really had much in the way of ideas for him.
Meltzer added that the rumors that TKO is against "darker" characters is not true and "bullsh*t", noting that he has been told that decisions to release talent never even reached TKO's executive level.
Zelina Vega is an interesting name who will become a free agent. While AEW was able to sign Black (her husband), Vega was also recruited back in 2020 when she was initially released by WWE. However, Meltzer wrote that after Tony Khan began negotiations with her, she "pretty much ghosted him" and eventually signed back with WWE.
