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Why WWE needs to cut more wrestlers
Past few months have seen several wrestlers demand their release from WWE. Even though it is the biggest stage available for professional wrestlers, WWE isn’t able to showcase the talent of their superstars on a regular basis.
Past few months have seen several wrestlers demand their release from WWE. Even though it is the biggest stage available for professional wrestlers, WWE isn’t able to showcase the talent of their superstars on a regular basis. WWE is the leading professional wrestling (or sports entertainment) organization in the world. Even though there has been competition from companies such as AEW, NJPW, ROH, Impact but Vince McMahon has been able to stay well ahead of the competition in terms of global popularity and revenue.
‘There is space for only so many guys’- this is a common phrase heard around professional wrestling. There is truth in the statement as it is extremely problematic for WWE to continually highlight a plethora of wrestlers that it has on its roster. There are three regular weekly shows aired by the company (RAW, SmackDown, NXT) but still along the way, WWE releases some wrestlers to make space for more.
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Currently, McMahon’s promotion is facing competition from All Elite Wrestling for the signature of top wrestlers in the world. A number of wrestlers like Luke Harper, Sin Cara, Mike Kanellis, Oney Lorcan have gone public with their release requests while reports have come out stating that The Revival, Elias, Matt Hardy, and Rusev also want to leave WWE.
‘An unhappy employee is always detrimental to the success of a product.’
After months of speculation, WWE finally decided to release Harper and Sin Cara. It has been reported that more superstars are likely to opt-out in 2020. Hardy has also indicated that he might leave when his contract expires in February.
So why not release more wrestlers?
Yes, there is competition but WWE is stacked with talent currently. Top stars like Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt, Daniel Bryan, Brock Lesnar, and AJ Styles will always be around the main-event for WWE.
The mid-card is also loaded with extremely skilled wrestlers like Shinsuke Nakamura, Rusev, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Mustafa Ali, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, Rey Mysterio, Andrade dominating the scene.
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That now leads us to the undercard, which has a huge number of wrestlers. Gran Metallik, Lince Dorado, Mike Kanellis, Akira Tozawa, Matt Hardy, Drew Gulak, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, R-Truth, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Dana Brooke, Sonya Deville, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and the list goes on and on.
People like EC3, Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater can’t even make it to television.
If we take a look at the case of EC3. He was one of the hottest wrestlers in the world during his run in Impact Wrestling. EC3 went undefeated for a long time as he showcased his talent inside the ring. He is an expert on the microphone while being a talented storyteller inside the ring. But he was punished by the WWE for not getting over while wrestling a former WWE champion Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), who was already leaving the company. Since that storyline, EC3 has been hardly used by WWE. Not even in squash matches.
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WWE will always need undercard wrestlers to put over other superstars and perform in squash matches. But the list of wrestlers not used by WWE is huge. It would be wise to skim the fat out of its roster as less motivated wrestlers could eventually bring the morale down (as has been witnessed in recent times).
WWE always puts its focus on top stars like Reigns, Rollins, and Lesnar while getting criticized for ignoring talented wrestlers on the verge of stardom. They cannot highlight every superstar on its roster but there could be a better use of the under-utilized bunch. More wrestlers will come out and ask for releases from their contracts in the near future. And WWE could have a major problem at hand if a proper plan is not in place for their releases.
WWE is a brand that will continue to thrive even with some wrestlers going out. They might be concerned that wrestlers could help the rival brands but from what has been witnessed in the past, the wheel will continue to roll if the quality of the product improves.
