Some WWE talent releases made due to vaccination status

In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer shared some notes regarding Thursday’s WWE releases including that vaccination status was the reason for several of the cuts.

“Some of the talent released was due to them refusing to get vaccinated and not being big enough stars to get away with that. While the number going around is that five of the 18 (releases) were not vaccinated, one talent in the company said it was a larger number than that. On the main roster, talent can’t tour foreign countries without being vaccinated. However, talent that may have been cut due to not being vaccinated were told they were let go due to budgetary cuts,” Meltzer wrote.

He also noted that age is likely another reason for several of the cuts as WWE wants more talents in their 20s on TV and have focused on bigger, younger people with an athletic background. He added that the new directive in hiring women is 25 or younger.

There is also discussion, according to Meltzer, that the company is looking at 60-day trial contracts for signing new talent. The idea would be that those under 60-day deals would need to show improvement in the trial period and if they do, they would be signed to a full-time deal. He believes that top prospects and established talent/indie prospects would not be subject to that type of deal.