Several names have been confirmed to have been released by WWE this afternoon.
Earlier this month, WWE and Endeavor officially completed their merger to form TKO, with budget cuts coming to several WWE employees as a result in order to synergise both divisions. Following on from this, talent cuts were reportedly to be expected in the coming weeks, and we now have confirmation of several names that are no longer with the company.
The first name to confirm their WWE release was Mustafa Ali, who took to Twitter to share the news, just nine days away from his scheduled NXT North American Championship bout with Dominik Mysterio at No Mercy.
The next talent to confirm their WWE release was Emma, who had shared her excitement about the upcoming Premium Live Event in Australia just under an hour before receiving the news.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful has since confirmed that several more names have been released by WWE, including former World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler, who had been with the company since 2004.
The full list of names confirmed to have been released by WWE thus far can be seen below:
- Mustafa Ali
- Emma
- Madcap Moss
- Top Dolla
- Aliyah
- Rick Boogs
- Elias
- Shelton Benjamin
- Dolph Ziggler
- Quincy Elliott
- Bryson Montana
- Dana Brooke
- Mansoor
- Mace
- Shanky
- Dabba-Kata (FKA Commander Azeez)
- Yulisa Leon
- Daniel McArthur
- Kevin Ventura-Cortez
- Alexis Gray
- Ikemen Jiro
- Brooklyn Barlow
Per Fightful, the above names are subject to 90-day non-compete clauses, as is standard with WWE main roster releases, and thus any talent looking to make a move elsewhere will need to wait until late December at the earliest. Talents released from NXT are expected to have 30-day non-compete clauses.
Several talents across both WWE and the wider wrestling world have taken to social media throughout the day to send their love to those affected by today’s releases, including former WWE Champion Big E and current AEW World Champion Saraya, amongst others.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the latest round of WWE releases as soon as we hear more, and our thoughts are with everyone affected at this difficult time.
