I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Weekend. BBQs, shopping, etc. As I am typing this, it is past 11pm, my kids are watching Bob Ross in an effort for me to get them back to sleep as I put them to bed about three hours ago until spontaneous screaming ensued. The joys of children.
I haven’t cover this topic yet, and it is long overdue. In the past few weeks, we learned a number of WWE wrestlers were released, or asked for their release. The latter I feel is more important, and I will get to this in a moment. First, the list:
As of this writing, the following were let go:
- Hornswoggle
- Alex Riley
- Zeb Colter
- El Torito
- Cameron
- Santino Marella
- Wade Barrett
- Damien Sandow
- Brooklyn Brawler
- Adam Rose
Most of the names are not surprising. Santino called it a career due to injuries, and was pretty much being paid to sit around. Cameron was useless in everything, and Adam Rose had been in a heap of trouble, so again, no surprise. Wade Barrett had made it known some time ago he was going to hang up the boots once his contract was over, and Alex Riley, a talented guy, more so on commentary than in the ring, just didn’t have “it” to remain on the roster. Shame, he would have made a great commentator.
The shockers go to The Brooklyn Brawler, Zeb Colter, and Damien Sandow. Brawler has been around forever. He really has. How WWE said, “Hey, we need to cut back, let’s get rid of a guy who has been the most loyal WWE supporter in the past 30 years.” Whoever was behind that choice needs a day of electroshock. Zeb Colter, granted, not really much in the way of airtime lately, but the guy is old, he’s got some health issues, but man, that’s cold.
Lastly, Damien Sandow. I could not remember anyone so over last year. Fans wanted him so badly, it was dominating arena chants. The Mizdow gimmick became hysterical, and we got the most entertaining side of Sandow since his debut. I loved the Intellectual Savior gimmick, but Mizdow was genius. I had a gut feeling it was all over when he finally broke free from The Miz, and gave a heartful ‘thank you’ speech on RAW. His sudden feud and partnership with Curtis Axel went nowhere [Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Hulk Hogan debacle] , and Sandow was relegated to battle royal spots. WWE really had something special with him, and they blew it.
The final folks, Cody Rhodes and Eden, both asked for their releases. Cody had no hesitation to publicly come out with his reasons for leaving, posting an image with the text on Twitter explaining his frustrations and overall disdain with the state of the business, in his opinion. Eden left, likely due to her connection to Rhodes.
Ryback. He is not among the future endeavored, however his recent ring gear of “pre-show-stealer” and tweets suggesting he go to TNA raised eyebrows. He has not been happy, and this isn’t the first time his emotions have been posted to the internet for interpretation.
One might think a number of the aforementioned wrestlers could go hop over to TNA. A bunch of them recently bailed and are in NXT or already in the WWE main roster. Reminds me of a few months in the late 90s where it seemed WWF and WCW were trading rosters.
Next time on The Week. I will take a look at the return of Seth Rollins and the upcoming rebirth of the Brand Split and SmackDown becoming a live program on Tuesday nights. Back-to-back wrestling? Could that work? Imagine coming off a PPV. Big event on Sunday night, Monday Night RAW, followed by Tuesday SmackDown. This could be overkill.
Bring back Velocity. Or Shotgun Saturday Night. Those were good shows.
