WWE News: WWE Releases NXT Superstar Who Competed In Mae Young Classic
Many have been waiting for WWE to bring about their next crop of releases, as they usually do a spring cleaning of the roster each year. While there hasn’t been one in quite some time, there may have been a sign on Saturday that it could end up starting soon. While it hasn’t yet been officially announced by WWE, they have come to terms of the release of an NXT superstar and Mae Young Classic competitor Zeda.
Some fans may not recognize Zeda, whose real name is Julia Ho, but she hasn’t really done a lot since joining the company last year.
On Saturday morning, Squared Circle Sirens confirmed that WWE had officially released Zeda from her developmental contract. Since WWE has not made any kind of official announcement regarding her release, there is nothing yet known as to why she was let go.
Back in September of 2016, Zeda received a tryout with WWE, but she didn’t end up being signed until January of 2017. During the time between those two events, she trained at the Santino Brothers Academy in California to hone her skills and become even more polished.
In January, she reported to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, but she hasn’t done much since that time.
After signing Zeda, the official website of WWE built up her MMA and amateur wrestling backgrounds to go along with her modeling and acting careers. She also received training from The Brian Kendrick before heading to the Performance Center and learned a good bit of the WWE style early on.
Zeda competed in the first-ever Mae Young Classic last summer and she faced off against Shayna Baszler in the first round. While Baszler ended up in the finals of the tournament, Zeda lasted less than three minutes in her opening round match before submitting for the loss.
During her time in NXT, Zeda had a number of matches, but usually only at house shows. Her debut for NXT came in a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Women’s Championship, which she obviously didn’t win.
She has made limited appearances on TV, and despite WWE not announcing her release publicly, she did comment on Twitter and Instagram.
— Zeda Zhang (@TheZedaZhang) June 2, 2018
There is no real word as to why Zeda, aka Julia Ho, was released from her developmental contract in NXT, but this could be the start of something. WWE may end up doing a bit of cleaning of its developmental and main roster soon, which is something that typically happens every year in the spring. It will be interesting to see what happens as both the Mae Young Classic and United Kingdom Championship Tournament will be taking place again this year.
