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2022 WRESTLERS LEAVING COMPANIES THREAD (Releases, FAs, etc...)


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Why is it that much of a stretch that Mickie James is in the Royal Rumble. They've had about 4 or 5 Women's Rumbles with a loaded roster between 3 brands 4 if you count NXTUK even before the Covid and had to pick through a random legend. Don't get me wrong people like Jacqueline, Lita , Ivory and Trish , its nice to see alot of these women get to go out there, for longer than 10, 15 minutes and interact with the current era women. It feels like even more so with the women they are just filling up spots. Especially as time goes on.

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It is interesting that they've decided to announce Rumble entrants ahead of time though. Like, back in the day they were all about getting the big surprise pop on the night, whereas now they seem to be wanting to get the surprise pop on social media, in the build up. It's an intriguing strategy.

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22 minutes ago, Gorman said:

It's surprising because Mickie is the current champion of another company, and she publicly complained that WWE returned her gear in a trash bag when they released her.

It seems like maybe Mickie is less bitter about the trashbag incident than some fans want her to be.  Same with Regal. if what he said on social media after his release is how he really feels.

Mickie being TNA champion at the time is interesting, though I have no idea what Impact contracts are like these days, or if Mickie even has a contract that makes her exclusive to Impact.  I'm more interested in seeing her than most of the actual women's roster, for what that's worth.  If I was going to bring somebody in from Impact, though, it'd be Deonna Purrazzo.  

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I thought Mickie's contract was with the NWA, not Impact. But apparently she might be unsigned completely.

In terms of what they've done in Impact, Deonna is by far the bigger name. But to WWE, the only thing that counts is what you've done in WWE, and Deonna was a forgettable NXT JTTS when she worked there. I mean, she wasn't, she was a great worker, but she was booked weakly.

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57 minutes ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

It seems like maybe Mickie is less bitter about the trashbag incident than some fans want her to be.  Same with Regal. if what he said on social media after his release is how he really feels.

Mickie being TNA champion at the time is interesting, though I have no idea what Impact contracts are like these days, or if Mickie even has a contract that makes her exclusive to Impact.  I'm more interested in seeing her than most of the actual women's roster, for what that's worth.  If I was going to bring somebody in from Impact, though, it'd be Deonna Purrazzo.  

Man I forgot about the trash bag thing, no wonder they are rolling out the red carpet. 

Why would Regal be bitter? I sure most of us would agree that he's one one greatest workers ever and probably the best eye for talent top but even he I don't believe would have imagined he would be in WWF/E 2 decades. Especially considering he credits them for saving his life. I don't see him being like Dean or Arn and just quickly moving on to AEW or New Japan. I don't think he should take his time to make his next move but I don't see him signing with AEW on the first offer

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5 hours ago, Gorman said:

It's surprising because Mickie is the current champion of another company, and she publicly complained that WWE returned her gear in a trash bag when they released her.

And WWE picks and chooses when they even acknowledge the NXTs (the commentators having no recollection of Dijakovic, Piper Niven), so recognizing a whole-ass other company is pretty left field.

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If Scott D’Amore is playing chess, he has Mickie drop the belt to Deonna at Hard to Kill, so Impact gets the pub from this announcement but doesn’t risk WWE embarrassing their champ somehow in the Rumble.

Edited by EVA
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17 minutes ago, EVA said:

If Scott D’Amore is playing chess, he has Mickie drop the belt to Deanna at Hard to Kill, so Impact gets the pub from this announcement but doesn’t risk WWE embarrassing their champ somehow in the Rumble.

This is what I figured as soon as I heard about it. 

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2 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Is there any discussion concerning WWE shrinking down to one roster for both shows?

I think the issue is Fox doesn’t want the same Superstars~! on both shows.  And/or both networks want their own roster.

Edited by Technico Support
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13 hours ago, Ziggy said:

Man I forgot about the trash bag thing, no wonder they are rolling out the red carpet. 

Why would Regal be bitter? I sure most of us would agree that he's one one greatest workers ever and probably the best eye for talent top but even he I don't believe would have imagined he would be in WWF/E 2 decades. Especially considering he credits them for saving his life. I don't see him being like Dean or Arn and just quickly moving on to AEW or New Japan. I don't think he should take his time to make his next move but I don't see him signing with AEW on the first offer

As much as old folks love WCW Regal and those matches with Finley, Regal was at his best in WWF. His character work there was just incredible.  Regal confronting HHH as Eugene's mentor is in my top three all time greatest moments in wrestling history.

"It was ME, Sunshine!"

Edited by Johnny Sorrow
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12 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I think the issue is Fox doesn’t want the same Superstars~! on both shows.  And/or both networks want their own roster.

I've found this most interesting that FOX since WWE started airing Smackdown has taken the brand split more serious than WWE has lol. Vince obviously doesn't really care to stick to the parameters he's set up and changes every season concerning the to or 3 Brands. 

I think in FOX mind the whole Raw and Smackdown thing keeps the whole sports dynamic and makes guys like Roman or Brock more important by keeping them exclusive to a certain brand.

With them continuing to trip the " fat" as far as releasing people and with the pandemic they'll have no choice but to end it all together and have one touring brand and developmental.

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Right.  I think Fox’s point of view is, why would we want to pay for the same wrestlers people already see on Monday, making ours a secondary product?  And that makes sense.  But as you said, I’m not sure they can keep a satisfactory brand split if they keep firing guys.

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Fox and USA supposedly want their own champions, according to Meltzer.  That's another obstacle to consolidating titles/rosters.

Going to back to Elias, is there a reason he seems to be just sitting out his contract?  I've never really heard anything about him wanting out or having heat with the front office.  I thought he was still fairly over up to the Phil Shatter feud.  It feels like they just gave up on him overnight, which seems odd.

For that matter, Asuka?  I remember talk she needed some time off for dental surgery, but that was about seven months ago.  I don't think they've mentioned her since.

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Auska had some kind of shoulder surgery. In pic of her getting her teeth fixed, she's in an arm sling so I assume it was just her getting that taken care of at the same time. Granted that was in August and her social media since then is mostly her photoshopping herself.

No rumblings from the sheetz~! about her return either so who knows. 

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2 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

Fox and USA supposedly want their own champions, according to Meltzer.  That's another obstacle to consolidating titles/rosters.

Going to back to Elias, is there a reason he seems to be just sitting out his contract?  I've never really heard anything about him wanting out or having heat with the front office.  I thought he was still fairly over up to the Phil Shatter feud.  It feels like they just gave up on him overnight, which seems odd.

There was that story that they had Elias drop the musician gimmick by filming vignettes of him burning his guitar in a graveyard but had absolutely no follow-up planned and that when he did return Vince felt he looked too much like Randy Savage so they just stopped writing for him altogether.

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I am not following WWE (and loving it every minute of it, Jerry) but wouldn't it make perfect sense that Asuka is going to surprise return at the next big PPV? The peanut gallery "but the WWE booking never makes sense" comments are implied, but she seems to past the recovery date and they haven't referred to her apparently in recent weeks, so... I do so love thee Asuka, and her YouTubes is a delight.

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The wonder with Elias is that they kept him with the concert/music gimmick throughout the entire pandemic era despite the lack of a live crowd rendering it kinda pointless, only to have him drop it shortly after they start performing in front of actual audiences again. Even by WWE standards that's fairly remarkable.

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On 1/7/2022 at 9:25 PM, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Do you guys think the cause of this might be happening because Triple H, and Steph have gone through a personal divorce due to infidelity, and only a few close people know about it? When’s the last time we’ve seen Paul & Stephanie together in public?

The whole "destruction of NXT" thing started right around the time they stopped pushing Rhea Ripley. Who, appearance and personality wise, appears to be EXACTLY Hunter's type...

Methinks that mayhaps two plus two does indeed equate to five!

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14 hours ago, caley said:

There was that story that they had Elias drop the musician gimmick by filming vignettes of him burning his guitar in a graveyard but had absolutely no follow-up planned and that when he did return Vince felt he looked too much like Randy Savage so they just stopped writing for him altogether.

He's always kinda looked like Savage though? And he was using a flying elbow in NXT I think.

I always thought he looked like Damien Sandow & that they could have teamed up as an odd couple duo - Damien the well to do genius who was given everything, Elias the drifting musician who felt he was shunned/misunderstood.

But again, that would require thought and nuance and smart writing.

WWE are just looking to book "moments" these days.

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On 1/7/2022 at 3:13 AM, Ultimo Necro said:

From Vince / Nick Khans point of view, looking at it from purely business view, they will think “did old NXT uncover a Rock, Cena, Lesnar level talent? No. Was it costing a lot to run? Yes.” So the recent decisions do make sense.

I'll preface this by saying I disagree with your talent grouping there. The Rock is on a level all his own. No developmental is going to consistently pump out Hollywood A-listers who make 9-figure-grossing movies every year. Your metric for a developmental should probably be more like finding HHH/Orton/Roman level guys somewhat consistently, that can at least main event some Manias and have multiple credible title runs.

By that metric, old NXT found 3 of those at least. Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte. There was a window for Finn, KO, and Keith Lee too, but ya know... Booking.

On top of that, not everyone is going to be a main eventer and NXT has consistently churned out midcard talent for years, most of which can be considered upper midcard that can get occasional main event runs. Sami, Neville, Breeze, Bayley, Alexa, Nia, Joe, Nakamura, Shayna, Asuka, Corbin, Revival, Roode, Ricochet, Black, Riddle, Bianca. If that's not good enough for a few years of scouting, I don't know what is.

I suspect in a few years when we can factor in success in other promotions, the talent level of 2014-2020 NXT is going to look even more ridiculous.

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2 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

I'll preface this by saying I disagree with your talent grouping there. The Rock is on a level all his own. No developmental is going to consistently pump out Hollywood A-listers who make 9-figure-grossing movies every year. Your metric for a developmental should probably be more like finding HHH/Orton/Roman level guys somewhat consistently, that can at least main event some Manias and have multiple credible title runs.

By that metric, old NXT found 3 of those at least. Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte. There was a window for Finn, KO, and Keith Lee too, but ya know... Booking.

On top of that, not everyone is going to be a main eventer and NXT has consistently churned out midcard talent for years, most of which can be considered upper midcard that can get occasional main event runs. Sami, Neville, Breeze, Bayley, Alexa, Nia, Joe, Nakamura, Shayna, Asuka, Corbin, Revival, Roode, Ricochet, Black, Riddle, Bianca. If that's not good enough for a few years of scouting, I don't know what is.

I suspect in a few years when we can factor in success in other promotions, the talent level of 2014-2020 NXT is going to look even more ridiculous.

I 100% agree with all of this.  I was just talking to my friend about how looking for the next Steve Austin and/or Rock is like looking for the next 2pac.  We haven't found the next one, because there isn't a next one.  You can't manufacture once in a lifetime figures, even if you had two of them at the same time.  This is the biggest problem with WWE in my opinion.  Instead of looking at the massive amount of talent that they have and using it to the best of their ability, they pick apart everyone who isn't immediately a cross over phenomenon and undercut them before they can actually build a following.  The amount of talent that has gone through NXT and was eventually squandered is an indictment of the company not the talent.

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