WWE has made more talent cuts and this time it hit the NXT brand hard.
On Friday, Fightful and PWInsider reported the following names that were released by the company:
- Bronson Reed
- Bobby Fish
- Mercedes Martinez
- Leon Ruff
- Tyler Rust
- Jake Atlas
- Ari Sterling
- Kona Reeves
- Zechariah Smith
- Asher Hale
- Giant Zanjeer
- Stephon Smith
This is the latest round of cuts. Because these are NXT stars, they will have 30-day non-compete clauses instead of the 90-day non-compete clauses that main roster talent are under.
Several of these newer wrestlers such as Hale had just moved to Florida to start training at the WWE Performance Center:Â
Reed is the biggest name from these cuts as he signed with WWE in 2019 and won the North American title earlier this year where he held it for a month.
Reed reacted to the news by writing on Twitter, “Just got released by WWE. This monster is back on the loose … you don’t know WHAT you’ve just done.” He tagged AEW, Ring of Honor, Impact and New Japan in the tweet.
Fish, a former NXT Tag Team Champion, found success with the Undisputed Era faction that included Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong. The group broke up earlier this year. In fact, Fish just lost a match to Strong on Tuesday’s NXT that was taped two weeks ago.
In April, WWE cut Samoa Joe, Iiconics, Mickie James, Chelsea Green and others while in June, both main roster and NXT/205 Live talents were let go included Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Ruby Riott, Fandango, Lana, Tyler Breeze, Tony Nese and others.
Last Saturday, Bray Wyatt was released and Ric Flair got out of his contract earlier this week.
