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WWE RELEASES, THE WYATTS, WHY ALEISTER AND KAIRI, WHY NOT SEND THE TALENTS TO AAA AND MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2026-04-26 13:48:00

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS TO MIKE FOR THE PWINSIDER Q&A BY CLICKING HERE.

Any chance know if Mercedes Mone was Backstage at AEW Dynamite in Portland this Past Weekend? 

I have not heard she was there.

Of all the people who got released yesterday, why Aleister Black and Kairi Sane? I was waiting for Kairi''s turn against Asuka for such a long time. And I read that instead of Pat Mcfee, it was Black in the initial writings in Orton's storyline Then what changed?

My feeling is that based on some of the names that were cut, this was about trimming the budget before the next quarterly earnings as opposed to creative for all of them being stalled.  If TKO decreed to WWE that it was time to trim the roster, they had no choice but to cut the budget.  At that point, it doesn't matter whether they had Sane in a weekly storyline or Black was on the cusp of being in a larger story or Santos Escobar about to get a AAA push, someone had to go.  It's entirely possible the decisions were made based on financials.  I think there are some who assume Triple H is in the position Vince McMahon used to be, where he was the end all for everything in the company.  That's not the case here.  He has to answer to his bosses, the same as you or I.  If his bosses say this is the deal, he has to deal with it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is being delusional.  This is not the old WWE and never will be again.   Politically, Levesque doesn't have the ability to do anything he wants.

Soooooo, with the Wyat Sicks gone, I guess we won’t see a “dark” Alexa Bliss, eh?

One has nothing to do with the other.  If WWE wants to turn Bliss into a heel or Sister Abigail or anything else, creatively, they have nothing preventing them from doing that.  I could argue that Bliss' Wrestlemania costume and entrance was a tribute to Bray.

I get that there are only so many main roster slots, and there will always be a churn, but why doesn't WWE send talents they aren't using on excursions to TNA or Pro Wrestling NOAH or Marigold rather than release them? Isn't that part of the value of having these partner companies?

That would require them to keep the talents under contract and pay them.  My gut feeling is this was about trimming the financials more than about dropping dead weight.  You can't do that while keeping the talents and paying them.

Could any of the released talent show up on AAA? Is it separate enough, or would they have just been shipped there?

No, again, that would have required keeping the talents under contract and paying them.

Was there anyone you were most shocked at?

I think you could make a case for a number of them, but to me, The Wyatt Sicks being wiped out was a surprise.  The company invested a lot into their creation and debut, plus six months ago, the act had their own haunted house at the Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights event, which was an awesome deal that allowed the company to have a nice crossover opportunity before a completely different audience.  To see the potential the group had quickly snapped away like Thanos ran across them is pretty surprising to me personally, but again, I think most of this was about financials and this allowed the company to wipe five salaries off the books at once.

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