At this point of the year, WWE oftentimes releases a substantial wave of main roster talents, in what many refer to as the company’s “spring cleaning” ritual. With the combined personnel of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live now exceeding 100 wrestlers, and several NXT wrestlers having debuted on either main roster brand in the weeks after WrestleMania 34 , one would think the company is preparing for this year’s wave of mass releases, but a new report suggests that WWE has no such plans for the meantime.
In a report published Sunday by WrestlingNews.co , Corey Jacobs cited his backstage sources, writing that WWE won’t be mass releasing wrestlers “anytime soon,” with most of the main roster assured of remaining employed for the immediate foreseeable future. According to Jacobs, WWE doesn’t want to go through its “spring cleaning” routine as it usually does, as that would qualify as “bad news,” and a possible cause for concern now that the company is trying to negotiate a new television deal. As WWE is hoping that it comes to terms on such an agreement before September, that could mean few, if any, noteworthy main roster wrestlers will be released within the next four months at the most.
As WWE’s main roster is composed of over 110 male and female wrestlers across both brands, WrestlingNews.co added that having such a “bloated” roster could be a good thing for WWE, as it allows Monday Night Raw’s and SmackDown Live’s creative writers to mix things up and give different people a chance to shine, as opposed to trying to cram all the top talents on their respective shows all at once.
Tenille Dashwood Talks About Life After Her WWE Release https://t.co/NeuuE7dN90 #ringofhonor #tenilledashwood
— ??Wrestling News Source (@WNSource) May 20, 2018
WrestlingNews.co mentioned recent NXT call-ups SAnitY as an example of the above dynamic, as the faction was officially called up to SmackDown Live from NXT right after WrestleMania , but has yet to actually appear on the show. According to WrestlingNews.co , it “wouldn’t make sense” to debut them immediately, as SmackDown’s current storylines have been planned in advance.
While the next WWE releases are expected to mostly include little-known talents from the company’s Performance Center, previous “spring cleans” stood out for wrestling fans because of a large number of familiar names “wished the best in [their] future endeavors.” The most recent example came in the spring of 2016, when more than 10 wrestlers, including “misused” mid-carders Damien Sandow and Wade Barrett, were released by WWE, with Forbes noting that the two were huge favorites among fans, but never reached the heights expected of them due to one reason or another.
