REVEALED: Why WWE Released So Many Wrestlers Following WrestleMania 42

WWE releases in the aftermath of WrestleMania 42 are reportedly over, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, although additional names may still emerge as they might not have been publicly revealed as of yet. 

Thirty wrestlers are publicly known to have been released by WWE since WrestleMania 42. The majority of the releases emerged on Friday, April 24 which included the whole of the Wyatt Sicks, the Motor City Machine Guns, Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Alba Fyre, Kairi Sane, Santos Escobar, and Apollo Crews. 

It was then revealed on Saturday, May 2 that the New Day of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were departing WWE, with it emerging soon after they had been asked to take pay cuts and the tag team instead asked for their releases, which was granted. JC Mateo and Tonga Loa of the MFTs were also released. The most recent name revealed to have been released was Francois Prinsloo on Wednesday, May 6. 

Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio there were multiple reasons behind why there were so many releases following WrestleMania 42. This includes WWE not cutting as many wrestlers in 2025 and playing catch-up, talents being called up to the main roster from NXT, and SmackDown moving back to two hours in the near future. 

Meltzer said:

"I am told that cuts are done. I don’t know if we know every name, but every name has been told. So if someone was told and did not go on social media or they did not remove the name from the website yet, it is possible a name or two could still come up, but they have all been done for now.

"The story on the cuts being so many, there’s a couple of reasons behind it. What happened is essentially last year, they do cuts every single year, last year because they had basically just taken over the company and they were trying to be good guys and all that, right, so they didn’t order a lot of cuts last year. They kind of held back, so it’s kind of like a catch-up

"Developmental, they’re adding new people to developmental. The people who they figured aren’t going to make it, those were the ones cut. The main roster cuts, essentially it was two things. Number one, all of the people who were brought up from NXT that got spots, essentially they wanted to remove a similar amount of people and they went to creative. It was creative that made the call as to who. They said like, ‘Who are you not planning on using? Who on the roster are you not planning on using? Give us X number of names.’ The number that were brought up and additional names from SmackDown, the reason being SmackDown at the end of this month, not next month, the end of this month, SmackDown is going to two hours. Therefore, there is an hour of less time of television, so therefore there is less time to put as many people on, so therefore there would be additional cuts on the SmackDown side. So that’s the story behind the number of cuts."

In addition to releases, several talents were approached about taking pay cuts and accepted the offer. Meltzer noted, however, that the offer was very much an ultimatum of accepting a pay cut or losing your job. 

"As far as salary slashing and all that…people were essentially told either you accept the new deal or you’re going to get cut. And they were people who the feeling was they would keep them under contract, they would phase them out from the wrestling but still use them, use them at times, use them to promote, things like that. I tell you what, the guys who were asked to restructure and stayed, you were not high on the list as far as what they were preparing to do for the future. So if someone was asked to take a salary cut, 50 per cent or whatever, and you said yes, the prospects aren’t that good. But you’re going to keep your job, so there you go," Meltzer added.

It is unknown who was asked to take a pay cut, but reports have noted it was wrestlers who were previously pushed at the top level but are no longer being booked as top stars within WWE. WWE's justification for offering the pay cuts was that wrestlers are working fewer days than they were in the past. 

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