With the competition growing from rival brand AEW, the WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has been cautious in granting releases to disgruntled superstars from their current contracts. Dean Ambrose, now known by in his in-ring moniker Jon Moxley in AEW, left the company after his contract ended in April. After making his first AEW appearance at Double or Nothing in May, Moxley sat down with Chris Jericho for an interview on the latter’s podcast “Talk is Jericho”, in which he talked about creative frustrations with the company, and the controlling nature of McMahon family.
Immediately after the interview, a number of WWE stars, including former InterContinental Champion Luke Harper, Sin Cara and former NXT tag-team champions The Revival requested their release from the company. The stars were unhappy with their storylines and their role within the company, and were lured by the prospect of working with AEW to get more creative freedom.
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But surprisingly, after months of tying Harper and Sin Cara to their contracts, WWE on Sunday granted a release to both the superstars, along with Konnor and Viktor of the tag-team unit The Ascension. So, what prompted the company to make this decision?
According to a report from Wrestling News, the decision was made to make room in their payroll so that the company can make bigger offers to some of the current superstars and entice them to stay with WWE and not jump on the AEW bandwagon.
{{/usCountry}}According to a report from Wrestling News, the decision was made to make room in their payroll so that the company can make bigger offers to some of the current superstars and entice them to stay with WWE and not jump on the AEW bandwagon.
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“A WWE source told me that another reason why the company is more open to releasing some wrestlers is that it helps them cut down on salaries while freeing up more money to offer deals to mid and upper card wrestlers who they don’t want to leave the company,” Wrestling News’s Paul Davis wrote.
A report from Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer last month had also noted that there is a new “push” within the company from Triple H to grant releases to “unhappy superstars”. While WWE fans might not be happy to see these superstars leaving the company, it seems like the right decision to clear out the locker room which is already overflowing at the moment.