This Friday brought another round of releases from WWE.  A dozen in all, a few of which were not noteworthy but some which were.  Bobby Fish was part of the biggest faction in NXT history, The Undisputed Era.  Mercedes Martinez is one of the best veteran women wrestlers around and was recently in a title match with Raquel Gonzalez.  Leon Ruff is a recent North American Champion, as is the most shocking release in Bronson Reed.  Tyler Rust was part of the new stable The Diamond Mine.  Kona Reeves has been an NXT roster member for over five years.  It really begged the question of just what in the hell is going on over there?

Are they gearing up to sell?  No.  Please, just stop that already.  You don’t get rid of people like Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman if you’re going to sell.  Is the brand split about to end?  Again, no.  As long as they have two shows and are getting a billion dollars from two different networks then there are going to be two separate rosters.  A report from PWInsider has shed some light on it.  NXT is reportedly re-branding and going younger, which means that people like Fish and Martinez are not in that equation.  But 32 year old Reed looked to be a real prospect to turn into something and isn’t old by any standard, so that’s really baffling.

As crappy as all that is it’s time for a hard conversation about NXT.  For all intents and purposes it’s been taking on water since last Spring.  Bianca Belair, Matt Riddle, Mia Yim, and Keith Lee all moved on to Raw and SmackDown in 2020.  Damian Priest would be off to RAW this January.  Velveteen Dream, who was poised to become a major star on the main roster and was one in NXT, completely flamed out after he was named in Speaking Out and is now out of the company altogether.  COVID breakouts at the PC essentially kept them out of participating in Survivor Series after they dominated it in 2019.  And the absence of these folks wasn’t fully matched by the names that came in their place.

The last few months have had some bright spots – Legado del Fantasma, Cameron Grimes and LA Knight, Hit Row, and the Index storyline – but beyond that a lot just has not hit.  The fallout from the Undisputed Era breakup has somewhat fizzled as Adam Cole has been in limbo pending his contract resolution and the other three members have kinda settled at the level we expected without him.  Karrion Kross second title reign has been underwhelming, as he has been lit up on the mic by all of the top contenders and the returning Samoa Joe.

And while I am still a complete anti-ratings zealot, the fact that moving to Tuesday night did not give them any real bump has to be troubling.  As somebody who has stuck with them I can tell you that the show itself still has some good weeks but there are others that feel like very little is happening.  The atmosphere has been panned as well; COVID took them out of Full Sail and first into an empty Performance Center and then to letting fans back in but the new setup still has not captured that old Full Sail energy.  Atmosphere alone is not the only thing.  As I mentioned earlier the roster, particularly the men’s side, just has not measured up in terms of buzz or excitement.  Even Cole feels past his sell by date to either move up to RAW or SmackDown or move on to AEW.

Which brings us to the original source of these cuts – the roster size.  As I’ve mentioned before they had 300 people under contract in 2020 before the first batch of releases began, which was entirely too many.  While the pandemic surely sped up the process a major bloodletting was eventually coming and here it is.  And while it sucks for people to lose their jobs under any circumstances a lot of these folks fall under the category of good wrestler and little else, particularly on the men’s side.  With NXT reportedly going younger expect more emphasis on people who have some kind of character or personality beyond just being good in the ring.  Which brings me to another realization:

The super-indie era in NXT is ending.

From 2014 through 2020 NXT was flooded with signees from Ring of Honor, Japan, and the indies.  With the exception of Cole the best ones have found their way to Raw or SmackDown.  But a lot of the ones who remain in NXT are largely guys who were pretty bland when it came to the kind of character work that has always been a staple in WWE.  Out of this batch of releases the only one that I can say had zero basis was Reed.  The rest are people who were nice to watch work and all but weren’t anyone I was dying to see on my television.  They had no future on Raw or SmackDown and they weren’t exactly drawing a crowd in NXT.  The future is going to be guys like the Parker Bordeaux or Odyssey Jones and not more Kyle O’Reillys.

Despite all these releases they still are bringing in more people.  They’re holding a tryout SummerSlam weekend and I imagine whoever makes it from there is more likely to be a young athlete who’s never wrestled than an indie veteran.  They’re already heavily courting Olympic Gold medalists Gable Stevenson and Tamyra Mensah-Stock.  That’s the wave now, everybody.  Indie veterans looking to get signed are going to have to take their prospects over to AEW, with the exception of those who have shown that they have some personality and/or some character.  Think Franky Monet and LA Knight.  The days of bringing in guys like Fish or Roddy Strong or Chris Hero are likely finished.

And I know this is tough to take as a fan seeing all of these people let go in such callous fashion. It’s a tough break for all of those who were let go, but something had to give.  They should all find work, and some will get signed by some of the other companies out there.  Now let’s be honest, nobody outside of Bobby Fish’s family and his friends are crying over his release.  But some of the names are troubling for all of us; Reed was a personal favorite of mine and I am legit worried for some other favorites of mine on Raw and SmackDown, at all levels of the roster.  It really does feel like no one is safe now.  But there is absolutely a plan here – one that is going to be uncomfortable to us to watch unfold, but one that if it works will put them in a much better place for the future.  And that plan is centered around the last letter in WWE, the E for Entertainment.