John Morrison, Hit Row part of eight WWE releases
WWE made another round of cuts Thursday night with John Morrison, the three remaining members of Hit Row and Tegan Nox among them.
The full list includes Morrison, Top Dolla, Ashante Adonis, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Tegan Nox, Drake Maverick, Shane Thorne, and Jaxson Ryker.
Fightful was the first to report the news with Dave Meltzer confirming.
The 42-year-old Morrison re-upped with WWE in the fall of 2019 and his wife, Taya Valkyrie, was part of the early-November cuts while she was in NXT. She made her feelings known about Morrison’s release on Twitter. Morrison had been paired with old partner The Miz, but with the latter doing Dancing with the Stars, Morrison was left in limbo. Miz was eliminated recently, but still hasn’t returned to TV.
Hit Row (Dolla, Adonis, Scott) were just called up to the main roster as part of the WWE Draft in October. B-Fab, another member of the group, was released two weeks ago along with 17 other wrestlers that included Keith Lee, Nia Jax and Karrion Kross. Scott is a former NXT North American Champion while Dolla (A.J. Francis) was part of WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures on A&E.
Nox was called up earlier this year, along with Shotzi Blackheart, to be part of the women’s tag team division. She had been in the system since April 2017.
This marks the second time Maverick has been released. He was originally let go in April 2020 as part of the pandemic cuts, but was re-signed several months later to an NXT contract. He took the opportunity to make his reaction a cinematic one.
Thorne had recently debuted a new gimmick that evoked memories of Outback Jack from the 1980s. He was also Slapjack in the short-lived Retribution faction.
Ryker was a fixture on WWE Main Event in recent months and even had a winning streak earlier this year. He found himself in controversy in June 2020 for a tweet of support for Donald Trump as the now-former U.S. president had given a speech in front of a church while protesters down the street were tear-gassed.