Every WWE Wrestler RELEASED In 2021 And Where They Are Now!

WrestleTalk

Which release was the worst?  Luke Owen counts down every WWE wrestler released in 2021 and where they are now.  SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/

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00:00Someone in the office, I won't say who, cough Andy Cough, suggested that WWE released

00:05so many names this year that I should do this video in the style of the PokéRap, which

00:09I won't do. Not only does it seem slightly in poor taste, I don't know what the PokéRap

00:13is because I'm nearly 40. WWE released 80 names this year, which is more than Impact's

00:18entire roster, bringing their combined total of releases across 2020 and 2021 to nearly

00:23140, which is more than AEW's entire roster. I don't want to do this video, you probably

00:27don't want to watch it. Merry Christmas! I'm Luke Hailing from PartsFarKnown and this

00:32is every style released by WWE in 2021. Just subscribe, will you? It'll make me feel good.

00:40It's Christmas, so guys, just click it, don't be a dick.

00:43We kick the year off in January, of course, with the release of Lars Sullivan, although

00:48the exact date isn't known because the news was actually kept quiet until February. Lars

00:52Sullivan never really got going on the main roster as a result of injuries and some problematic

00:56posts from his past returning to light. He's yet to make another appearance in wrestling,

01:00but the same cannot be said for Steve Cutler, who was released on February 4th. Cutler had

01:03been taken off TV after dickhead tag partner Jackson Ryker killed the Forgotten Sons push,

01:08and since his release Cutler, now known as Steve Macklin, has debuted for Impact where

01:11he competes as part of the X Division. Go watch his match at Bound for Glory, it's

01:15really quite great. Then on March 21st, shortly after it was reported that he'd asked for

01:19his release, Andrade was released from his WWE contract. Although he hasn't had the

01:23most impactful run in All Elite Wrestling so far, let's be honest, his debut was odd,

01:27his pairings have been odd and his lack of stories is even odder. But his matches with

01:31PAC have been great, so there's that.

01:33Then we flash up the text one year later, like that bit in Avengers Endgame, as by some

01:38strange coincidence, one year to the day that the last time this happened, WWE released

01:44a bunch of names on April 15th, including Samoa Joe, who then returned to the company

01:48to win the NXT Championship before having it stripped off of him suspiciously just before

01:52the NXT 2.0 rebrand and then haven't heard from him since. The IIconics and Mickey James

01:57were also part of this round of cuts and are both now in Impact where they are the current

02:01Knockout Tag Champions and Knockouts Champion respectively, with James also producing the

02:05NWA Empowerrrrrr event which is basically the only good thing NWA has done all year.

02:10Steve Cutler's tag partner Wesley Blake was also released and recently resurfaced in Ring

02:14of Honor at Final Battle to help EC3 along with… another name that will come up in

02:18a little bit. Ring of Honor was also the home for Chelsea Green, who is also doing work

02:22in Impact Wrestling with her partner Matt Cardona. Kalisto was released and has had

02:26one match in AEW and was roundly chewed out by Chris Jericho and Amanda Huber over dedicating

02:31his match to the late Brodie Lee and let's not revisit that sticky situation, while Bo

02:35Dallas and Tucker have yet to show up anywhere outside of Bo being at WrestleCade. Poor old

02:39Tucker by the way, they split him away from his popular tag team with no plan of what

02:43to do with him, realised they had nothing to do with him, then released him because

02:45they had nothing to do with him. What a terrible situation.

02:48Moving into May and on the 19th, don't tell Kane, a bunch of NXT names were cut including

02:53Jessamyn Duke, Vanessa Bourne, Skylar Story, Ezra Judge, Alexander Wolfe, Kavita Devi and

02:57let's talk about Velveteen Dream I guess if we have to. Once considered to be a can't

03:03miss star out of NXT, Velveteen Dream quickly became a nightmare when alleged messages between

03:07him and a minor surfaced in 2020. They were never outright confirmed and WWE constantly

03:12denied it with Triple H saying they'd done their own internal investigations, but he

03:16did just disappear from TV and it seemed like his time in WWE was over. Sure enough

03:21it was. Of the stars released in this batch, few have done things of note. Alexander Wolfe

03:25is the exception though, returning to WXW and becoming their champion soon after his

03:29release. Hi Dan, I know you'll like to hear that. Referees Jake Clement and Drake Wurtz

03:32were also cut during this time, but the less we speak about Wurtz the better, this has

03:36already been too much. The next releases were perhaps the most shocking of the lot, because

03:40on June 2nd it was reported that WWE had cut Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Lana, Ruby

03:45Riott, Buddy Murphy and Santana Garrett. Braun Strowman? Really? They cut Braun Strowman?

03:51Six months later and it still doesn't feel right. Strowman was as much a WWE guy as you

03:55can get. Huge, great shape, can have a match, you'd think Vince McMahon would never let

03:59him go. Sure enough, budget cuts reared their heads again and Strowman was gone, only recently

04:03showing up at Ring of Honor's final battle alongside EC3 and Wesley Blake. It was said

04:08that Strowman had a MASSIVE contract which is what led him to be part of the cut, while

04:13the others just felt like, we got nothing for you kid. Which is odd because they'd

04:16literally just re-introduced Black on the main roster for a feud with then IC Champion

04:20Big E. Famously, Black never took off his 30 day non-compete clause from his contract

04:25when he went to the main roster, so he showed up in AEW just a month later as Malakai Black

04:29and had a very good rivalry with Cody Rhodes that went a bit too long. Ruby Riott, now

04:34Ruby Soho was also AEW bound, winning the Casino Battle Royal at All Out and routinely

04:38having great matches, showcasing just how big of a missed opportunity she was in WWE.

04:43Santana Garrett has also had a few AEW appearances, while Murphy has started working for New Japan

04:47Pro Wrestling in America, recently having a match with Kazuchika Okada of all people.

04:51Lana on the other hand hasn't been seen in wrestling since.

04:54We're not done with June though, as on the 25th, WWE cut Breezango, Killian Dain, Tino

04:58Sabatelli, The Bollywood Boys, Marina Shafir, Arturo Ruas, Kurt Stallion, Ever-Rise, Tony

05:03Nese, Araya Daivari and August Grey. Do you remember earlier in the year when they said

05:07there were big plans for the Cruiserweight division? Do you remember that? It was like

05:10weeks before this round of cuts, which completely decimated the 205 Live roster, or what was

05:15left of it. The Bollywood Boys, Ruas, Stallion, Nese, Daivari and Grey were all competing

05:19on the brand before their release, and somehow 205 Live is still on the air!

05:24Oh my god, it's still on the air! How is that even possible? Odyssey Jones is on this

05:29show and let me check my notes, he's not 205 pounds!

05:33Some of these stars have shown up in AEW, with Ever-Rise being rebranded 2.0 and being

05:37paired with Daniel Garcia as part of a very entertaining act. Tony Nese was signed and

05:41challenged Sammy Guevara for the TNT title. Stallion, Grey, Shafir and Daivari have also

05:44made occasional appearances for the promotion. Killeen Day was part of NXT when he was cut,

05:48but has since been on QuizzleMania twice, the WrestleTalk Podcast twice and Board Game

05:51Club once, so I think he's doing better now than he was then.

05:54Perhaps the saddest of this round, though, was the cutting of Fandango and Tyler Breeze,

05:57two very popular and well-liked wrestlers. Breeze's release also seemed to spell the

06:01end of Up Up Down Down, which is, yeah, super sad.

06:05One thing that can be said for all of these names, although I don't agree with this

06:08sentiment, is that none of them were making WWE any form of massive money. And they certainly

06:13wouldn't release anyone that could do that, if that was until July 31st when Bray Wyatt

06:16was released, one of the true needle movers in your company. A man clearly brimming with

06:20creativity, a multiple time world champion and one of the most intriguing characters

06:24to come through the WWE pipeline in decades. A man who was selling merchandise like he

06:29was the greatest snake oil merchant in all of the land. Gone.

06:33It's insane to think that Wyatt was released at the end of July but hadn't been seen on

06:36TV since WrestleMania when he lost to Randy Orton in one of the dumbest and worst matches

06:41of the entire year. That whole feud could be summed up as, Randy Orton won all the time,

06:45then he lost to Bliss while Bray was missing for months, then he beat Bray again. Sucked.

06:50Reportedly, Bray was difficult to work with backstage and did like his creative. I f***ing

06:54wonder why!

06:55Wyatt is now working on horror movies, and remains to be seen if he'll return to wrestling

06:58again.

06:59Ric Flair was released on August 2nd, which you'd think would have to do with Dark Side

07:02of the Ring, but didn't air for another couple of months. A few days later, however,

07:07on August 6th saw WWE release another batch of NXT names, including Bronson Reed, Bobby

07:12Fish, Leon Ruff, Tyler Rust, Jake Atlas, Mercedes Martinez, Asher Hale, Giant Zanjeer, Zachariah

07:17Smith, Kona Reeves, Ari Sterling and Desmond Troy.

07:19NXT in the spring of 2021 was not what it once was, but there were still a lot of stars

07:24to possibly get invested in. People like Bronson Reed, for example. He was the North American

07:28champion and actually appeared to be in line for a main roster call-up, but was shown the

07:32door instead. Now wrestling as Jonah, he debuted for Impact in New Japan, which appeared

07:36to be his new homes. Bobby Fish quickly joined AEW, Mercedes Martinez recently returned to

07:41the indies where she wrestled Thunder Rosa and has done work with Impact, and Tyler Rust

07:44made his way to Ring of Honor before news of its closure.

07:47Other stars like Leon Ruff and Jake Atlas being released really gutted NXT, and it was

07:51this round of cuts that signalled the way for NXT 2.0's arrival. So much talent in

07:55this batch of releases, it's kind of ridiculous. You couldn't see the value in having Fish

07:59and Martinez as PC coaches down the line. Also at the end of August saw Adam Cole and

08:03Bryan Danielson leave WWE and head to AEW to debut at All Out. Not technically releases,

08:09they actually just left. Dannyson had actually left earlier in the year, he just waited for

08:13August to show up. And both have been doing great work in the company. I'll also mention

08:17now that Kyle O'Reilly and Johnny Gargano are also free agents after not re-signing

08:21with WWE. But again, not technically releases, so they don't actually technically belong

08:26on this list and I just know that if I didn't mention it someone would roast me in the comments.

08:30Make fun of me for the Tom Dolland thing, don't tell me I did something wrong on this

08:33list. Tom Dolland. Sorry, Tom Dolland?

08:39September and October passed us by and we all figured that the releases were done for

08:42the year. After all, there'd been a lot of them. But then on November 4th, 18 new names

08:48were cut from WWE, including Mia Yim, Nia Jax, Yves Marie, Karrion Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux,

08:53Dan Metalik, Lince Dorado, BFAP, Harry Smith, Oney Lorcan, Frankie Monet, Ember Moon, Trey

08:58Baxter, Jesse Kamea, Jeet Rama, Zendaya Ramire, Katrina Cortez, and Keith Lee.

09:05It was not a fun day to be a wrestling podcaster, let me tell you. What bugged most people about

09:09this list is that Nick Khan made the argument early in the year that these cuts were done

09:13because they wanted needle movers, and apparently they weren't moving any needles. But that

09:17might be because they weren't given a chance to move them. Keith Lee had had several stop

09:21start pushes, Karrion Kross LOST in his debut WHILE he was NXT Champion, then given a Zardoz

09:27gimmick, BFAP was taken out of Hit Row for no reason after, what, two weeks? Katrina

09:32Cortez was used TWO YEARS AGO to get Andrade over, and guess what, he's also gone. Mia

09:38Yim was part of Retribution, which was an utter joke, then just taken off TV for no

09:42reason. Yves Marie had one feud that was badly told, then written off TV. Trey Baxter had

09:47just 10 matches in NXT, Frankie Monet only had 6, and you hadn't even debuted Harry

09:51Smith on any shows even though he'd been signed for months. Some of the other names

09:55on this list hadn't been given a shot. Zayda Ramiro had only signed with the company THIS

09:59YEAR.

10:00The other reported reason for some of these releases were down to their vaccination status,

10:04and in the case of Frankie Monet, was she was too old at the age of 38. Because as we

10:09all know, women are basically dead once they're past 35. Sorry about that, ladies. The rest

10:13of the names were ultimately part of the NXT 2.0 rebrand. They didn't want guys or

10:17girls who came from the indie, so they're all out the door.

10:19We've reached the part of this list where the non-compete clauses of the wrestlers have

10:22not actually expired yet, so we don't have any updates to give regarding where people

10:25have gone next, but it's impossible to believe that any of them won't struggle to find work,

10:30and once again, it's also worth noting-

10:32WWE RELEASED KEITH LEE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE HIM MOVE NEEDLES EVEN THOUGH

10:37HE'S MOVED NEEDLES EVERYWHERE ELSE HE'S BEEN. MAYBE THE PROBLEM ISN'T KEITH LEE AND IT'S

10:41YOU, YOU F***ING IDIOTS.

10:43But surely that's it now, right? Well, no. Because just two weeks later, on November

10:4719th, WWE cut Drake Maverick, Jackson Ryker, John Morrison, Shane Thorne, Tegan Nox and

10:52the rest of Hit Row.

10:53Hit Row stings a lot, as they were a group that had a lot of potential and were given

10:56a f***ing cool chance to get over on the main roster. It's easy to forget that the group

11:00had only debuted in May. They'd had three segments on Smackdown and then that was it.

11:04It was reported that Top Dollar had a lot of heat on him backstage, and once they didn't

11:08like him, the group was over because WWE saw him as the star of the group which had

11:12ISAIAH F***ING SWERVE F***ING SCOTT IN IT.

11:15Swerve has all the charisma present and ability he would want out of a top guy, and while

11:19his partners were still green, they were a tremendous package with tons of upside. Morrison

11:24was less of a surprise considering his wife had been cut two weeks earlier, Drake Maverick

11:28has now been fired two years in a row, that must sting, and Tegan Nox was another name

11:31that hadn't been given a chance when she came up to the main roster. Thrown together

11:34in a random tag team that pinned the tag champs a bunch of times that never resulted

11:38in a title match so why should I care? At least Shane Thorne is now free of the slapjack

11:41gimmick but if I was him I'd run that sucker into the ground on the indie circuit as you

11:45can get a bunch of ironic bookings from that, and Ryker's firing meant that all three

11:49of the Forgotten Sons were forgotten this year.

11:51And the last name on this list, I hope, is Jeff Hardy who was released from his WWE contract

11:56on December 9th 2021. Hardy had been sent home from a live event after he walked out

12:00on a tag match and reportedly turned down rehab help from WWE. He's recently appeared

12:04on his brother's Twitch channel saying he's doing a concert tour and a meet and greet

12:08tour. Matt has also since said that WWE jumped the gun on releasing Jeff Hardy and he's actually

12:12clean and sober. Let's hope so.

12:14So that's our long and depressing list. Click the other ones if you want to. Merry Christmas

12:19I guess. Hope we don't have to do this again next year. I've been Luke Owen, Jam That Jam.

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