Here's your wrestling news for June 26th 2021
And your headlines for today include
14 WWE Wrestlers Released! WWE Expected To Fire Even More People Today
WWE Pushing To Hire More Comedy Writers
WWE President Nick Khan ‘Willing To Take The Heat’ For Mass Releases And more!
We’re starting today with WWE, who have been cutting dozens of Superstars over the past year in the name of
budget-cuts, a strange defence given that the company is not only doing well financially, but is boasting record profits.
Yesterday, several sources, including Jon Alba, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, Wrestle Votes and Andrew Zarian noted that more
releases were coming, and WWE didn’t wait long to cut more talent. Yesterday, WWE cut a total 14 names from
it’s roster, and they are Fandango, Tyler Breeze, August Grey, Killian Dain, Ever- Rise, Curt Stallion, Arturo Ruas, Tino
Sabbatelli, Marina Shafir, the Bollywood Boyz, Ariya Daivari, and Tony Nese Fandango, a 14-year veteran of WWE,
signed in 2006, and after winning season 4 of the original NXT, leaves the company as a former NXT Tag Team Champion
alongside Tyler Breeze. Breeze signed with WWE in 2010, and the pair’s last match was at the June 15th NXT,
where they defeated Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel. On Twitter, Fandango thanked Vince
McMahon, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon for the opportunity to work in WWE, whilst Breeze hasn’t commented publicly yet.
August Grey is a relative newcomer in WWE, joining the company on August 2nd last year, and given WWE taping shows in advance,
appeared on last night’s 205 Live, after being released. Before that match aired, Grey was able to
to see the funny side of his release, as he tweeted that the match, which he’d ultimately lose to Grayson Waller, was a Loser-
Leaves-Town match. Killian Dain joined WWE in 2016, and is perhaps best known for his time in Sanity
on the main roster and NXT. After the group disbanded, Dain formed an unlikely team with Drake Maverick on-screen
with his most recent match being a loss to Isiah Swerve Scott on the June 8th NXT. Dain is married to RAW Superstar Nikki
Cross, and on Twitter, the former Women’s Tag Team Champion said that she’s seen his talent, passion and versatility first-hand,
and that the world is waiting for him. Ever-Rise, the team of Chase Parker and Matt Martel signed in 2019, and are another
surprising release, given that they returned to NXT this week after nearly two months away, losing to Hit Row on the June 22nd NXT,
and neither have tweeted about their release. Curt Stallion had only recently been cleared to return to action following a wrist injury,
after appearing on 205 Live since he signed in October last year. Stallion’s last match was on the March 10th
205 Live, where he and Mansoor defeated the Bollywood Boyz, and though he hasn’t directly addressed his release, Stallion did
share an anime video, with the protagonist saying “well, whatever happens, happens.”
With a background in both freestyle wrestling and Brailian jiu-jitsu, Arturo Ruas was in NXT for nearly his entire WWE run after signing
in 2015, except for an appearance on RAW Underground last year, and he’s been out of action since November after suffering a
bicep injury, his last match being a loss to KUSHIDA on the November 18th NXT, and he’s not tweeted about his release at this time.
Tino Sabbatelli is one of the more interesting releases, as after signing in October 2014, he was initially released in April 2020, but
was re-hired in October last year, and hasn’t tweeted about his now-second departure.
During his time away though, Sabbatelli squeezed in a match on AEW Dark, teaming with Brady Pierce to lose to the Best
Friends on the July 21st 2020 show, and though he was re-hired by WWE, never appeared during his second run, with his
second run, with his last WWE match being a March 7th 2020 loss to Rick Boogs, before his first release.
Marina Shafir was part of WWE’s four- horsewomen of MMA and is a friend of Ronda Rousey, was signed in 2018
alongside Jessamyn Duke, and spent nearly her entire run in NXT, except for one RAW Underground appearance.
Her last match was teaming with Zoey Stark on the January 27th 205 Live, where the pair lost to Ember Moon and Shotzi blackheart,
and she hasn’t commented publicly on her release yet. WWE reportedly had plans in the works for
the MMA Horsewoman, including a reported name change according to PW Insider, but obviously that won’t be happening now.
The Bollywood Boyz, Samir and Sunil Singh joined WWE in 2016, and were paired with Jinder Mahal during his 2017 WWE
Championship reign, and after recently competing on 205 Live, leave the company with a 24/7 title reign each.
In a statement, the pair said that all the bumps and injuries of the past five years were worth it, and that it’s ironic that Sunil’s last match in
WWE finished with his shoulder hanging out his socket. This is in reference to Sunil’s June 11th loss to
Grayson Waller, where he suffered a shoulder injury, and the pair added that it’s fitting that they got fired while showing up
for wrestling training. Ariya Daivari was also a mainstay of 205 Live, as he debuted in the 2016 Cruiserweight
Classic, though never held the title, and fans may know his brother Shawn Daivari, who was recently rehired as a producer.
His last match was on last night’s 205 Live, where he lost to Ikemen Jiro, and in a comment on Instagram said he enjoyed
working on 205 Live, despite the show not being highly positioned. On Twitter, Daivari gave another statement,
thanking the fans for their support and said he’s done with Sports Entertainment, and is looking forward to getting back to
professional wrestling. Tony Nese was also a 205 Live fixture since joining in 2016, holding the Cruiserweight title
once during his tenure, and has one SmackDown appearance under his belt too, losing to Matt Riddle on the blue brand last
year. Nese’s last match in WWE was a 205 Live loss to Ikemen Jiro on June 15th this year,
and in a statement, Nese thanked fans who watched 305 Live, and said he can’t wait to bust his a** for someone else, other than WWE.
So far, no main-roster Superstars have been released, and unlike the recent RAW and SmackDown releases, who have to wait
90-days, NXT and 205 Live Superstars released this week have a 30-day non- compete clause to deal with.
It’s always difficult to lose your job, and must be especially tough on these Superstars with fans being so close to
to returning, and we’ll have to see where these names go when their 30-day non- compete clauses come to an end
Given that these releases have come at a time when WWE is it’s most profitable, it’s no wonder why these cuts, like all other
budget cut releases’ have proven to be unpopular. This latest set of releases happened after
WWE President Nick Khan demanded that more people be let go during a meeting yesterday, and Khan is willing to take the
blame. That’s according to a report from Fightful, who noted:
“We were told that Nick Khan specifically is willing to take the heat and did not seem concerned about prior plans, projects,
who the person or married to, how long they’ve been signed, or what they have going on.”
Fans aren’t happy with Khan, who recently bought a second multi-million dollar home in California, and his name was trending on
Twitter yesterday for that very reason. It’s also reported that Khan has earned himself a new nickname in WWE, as he’s
being called ‘The Terminator’ thanks to his fondness for cutting massive waves. It’s still unclear why WWE feels the need to
cut the budget so much, though the rumours of a major sale continue to persist, but what we do know is that WWE will be running on
a much tighter budget from now on.
We’re focussing on Kenice Mobely next, the WWE writer who recently made headlines when she revealed that she was hired
without any knowledge of WWE beforehand. In her appearance on the Asian Not Asian podcast, Mobley even said she didn’t know
the name of the WWE Champion, believing he’s called Bobby Ashley, and when discussing former Superstar/Performance
Center coach Scotty 2 Hotty, said she had no idea who he was, but would be embarrassed to lose to someone like him.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Mobely’s comments unsurprisingly got her in trouble,
as whilst a writer not having a background in wrestling isn’t new, the WWE weren’t pleased with her admitting to this publicly.
The Observer’s report is that WWE officials are quote “embarrassed,” and believe Mobely was “blindlingly stupid,” by admitting
this on the Asian Not Asian podcast. Unsurprisingly, this had led to Mobley’s dismissal from the company, as Sean
Ross Sapp of Fightful reports that she’s been fired after her controversial comments.
No longer a writer for WWE, Mobely has a career as a comedian to fall back on, and we can only hope her replacement at least
knows the name of the WWE Champion.
Ultimately, WWE’s problem is that they continue to hire writers who simply have no idea about professional wrestling,
but that practice won’t be stopping yet. When Ringside News asked about the Mobely situation, they were told that
despite the heat on the writer/comedian, there’s actually been a push in WWE to hire more comedy writers
It’s no secret that comedy and wrestling don’t always mix, as for every Team Hell No Anger Management Class or Festival
of Friendship, there’s a Bayley This is Your Life angle that bombed with fans. WWE aren’t looking for pro wrestling writers
but for writers who have experience writing entertainment TV as a whole, and unfortunately for wrestling fans, that
means including people who have no idea about the Superstars they are writing about.