Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Nia Jax part of 18 WWE releases

Shortly after WWE’s quarterly investors call wrapped, the company began making cuts to their talent roster, citing “budget cuts” as the reason. 

From the main WWE roster, Keith Lee, Mia Yim, Nia Jax, Karrion Kross, Eva Marie, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, Harry Smith, and B-Fab were released. 

From the NXT roster, Scarlett, Ember Moon, Franky Monet, Jessi Kamea, Katrina Cortez, Jeet Rama, Oney Lorcan, Trey Baxter and Zayda Ramier have been let go.

Mass releases have become a regular occurrence in WWE throughout 2021 as they made 13 roster cuts on August 6, another 14 on June 25, six on June 2, eight on May 19, and 10 on April 15. 

Kross and Lee are both former NXT Champions. Lee had been rebranded as “Bearcat” Keith Lee on Raw. Kross had not been accompanied by Scarlett on the main roster as he had been in NXT. 

Jax is a former Raw Women’s Champion and a two-time former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion. Her pairing with Shayna Baszler was the focus of the women’s tag division in WWE throughout much of this year. 

Scarlett stated on Twitter that she has a 30-day non-compete clause following here release, while Oney Lorcan stated on YouTube that his non-compete is 90 days. 

Monet tweeted: “TAYA VALKYRIE” while Moon tweeted: “All I can do is laugh…”