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In a February full of moving parts around the professional wrestling world, WWE made headlines for letting go of almost a dozen current Superstars, from rarely used talent like the Good Brothers, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows, to weekly fixtures of television like Elektra Lopez of Legado Del Fantasma.
While some of these moves came as a surprise, certainly more than AEW letting go of Ricky Starks, Miro, and Malakai Black, they sort of come with the territory with WWE trimming the fat as they turn into WrestleMania season, right?
Well, in the opinion of WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, that might not be the case, as Double J believes there could be more releases coming to help make spreadsheets look just a little bit cleaner.
“It’s another sign to me, just how the business just continues to rapidly evolve… I almost would say that I’m a little surprised that we haven’t seen more. Because of — look, we can talk inside the bubble wrestling all we want. But that organization is driven by Ari Emmanuel,” Jarrett noted via 411 Mania. “I don’t want to say he’s the furthest thing from a wrestling guy, but he’s not a wrestling guy. And [Mark] Shapiro, they’re — and I’m saying this in a completely positive way, they’re completely bottom-line-driven and ‘turnover, turnover, turnover.’ I often refer to the Jack Welch book of [cutting the bottom 10% every year] for the health of the company. That doesn’t count into restructuring and doing this and doing that. WWE is a completely different organization than they were pre-Endeavor.”
Fortunately for released Superstars, Double J does see a path for these stars to continue on with their careers near WWE, with the promotion's new partnership with TNA making it easier to release stars who aren't being used and still keep them close enough should a need arise.
“The pipeline of NXT to bring people up to the other brands, and the TNA relationship. They’re not going to carry anybody — I don’t see it. I don’t think they’re going to carry anybody on their roster,” Jarrett noted. “As a matter of fact, I think more is coming. I would say more is coming in a continual, there is no more ‘Post-WrestleMania [cuts] and then take a deep breath, and then you’re good for another 12 months.’ I think those days are gone. I think every couple of months, that’s just going to be the nature of the beast because of the way they operate now.”
Considering how much run NXT had gotten with performers like Joe Hendry, Jordynne Grace, and The Rascalz, who all had PLE matches for the promotion to help put over established stars, and the current connections that could see Faxium wrestle The Hardys in their first WWE match in over half a decade, it's clear this brave new world does present unique opportunities that simply didn't exist when Jarrett was in charge. How does it work out moving forward? That, as they say, is the million-dollar question.
