Multiple Reasons Why WWE Released Well Over Two Dozen Superstars

More information continues to come out about the most recent, and deep round of WWE roster cuts.

Over 30 Superstars were either released from their contracts this month or told that their deals would not be renewed. The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, who had both been with the company over 15 years, headlined the list that also included Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Kairi Sane and the entire Wyatt Sicks stable.

WWE parent company TKO, which just reported significant 2026 first quarter revenues on Wednesday, reportedly tasked President Nick Khan and Chief Content Officer Paul 'Triple H' Levesque with trimming millions from the roster budget as they aim to maximize those revenues to help offset other debt accrued by TKO's majority owner, Endeavor Group Holdings.

As for why such a high number of wrestlers from both the main roster and NXT developmental were let go, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer says there were multiple contributing factors.

"They do cuts every single year," Meltzer said on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. "Because they had basically just taken over the company, and they were trying to be good guys and all that, they didn't order a lot of cuts last year. They kind of held back, so [this year is] kind of like a catch-up."

When it comes to developmental talent, Meltzer said WWE cut those people they felt were not going to make it long-term. Francois Prinsloo, a recently recruited discus thrower from South Africa, was the latest to announce his departure from the company.

Main roster cuts essentially came down to space and time

"All of the people who were brought up from NXT that got spots, essentially they wanted to remove a similar amount of people and they went to creative," Meltzer said. "It was creative that made the call as to who. [TKO] said like, 'Who are you not planning on using? Who on the roster are you not planning on using? Give us X number of names.'"

A disproportionate number of SmackDown Superstars were released from their contracts when compared to those on Raw, and as many expected, the upcoming format shift for the Blue Brand played a role in the decision-making process.

"SmackDown is going to two hours. Therefore, there is an hour of less time of television, so therefore there is less time to put as many people on, so therefore, there would be additional cuts on the SmackDown side. So that's the story behind the number of cuts."

The good news is that Meltzer has been told the cuts are done, for now. That doesn't mean that every person who was let go is publicly known at this time, so a few more names could still trickle out in the coming days.

Add us as a preferred source on Google