EIGHT NXT ON-AIR TALENT RELEASED BY WWE
source: https://www.f4wonline.com/nxt-news/eigh ... wwe-341836

Six wrestlers and two referees in NXT have been released by WWE.

Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Kavita Devi, Jessamyn Duke, Ezra Judge, Skyler Story, Vanessa Borne, Alexander Wolfe, and referees Drake Wuertz and Jake Clemons have been released from the company. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful was the first to report the cuts, and more are expected.

Wuertz had been a referee for the NXT brand since 2014, and had been seen as recently as this week’s episode of NXT. Wolfe signed with WWE in 2015. He also appeared on last night’s NXT, where he was laid out by members of Imperium after they turned on him. Devi had been training at the WWE Performance Center since 2017, Duke since 2018, Judge since 2019, and Borne since 2016. Story, who previously worked under the name Brandi Lauren in EVOLVE, had started with the company in October.

Wuertz has made controversial statements in recent weeks, most recently at a Seminole County Public School Board meeting back on May 11. In his statement to the board, Wuertz argued that wearing masks in schools assists predators who “wish to prey upon our children". At a Semionle County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Zoom wearing NXT attire earlier this month, he argued against the mask mandate in the county, saying that “child sex traffickers love COVID masks.”

Prior to signing with WWE as a referee, Wuertz wrestled regularly in CZW under the name Drake Younger.

Damn, what did Lauren do to be canned this quickly?

cero2k wrote: ↑May 19th, '21, 16:49

Okay. Had not heard about most of these. Walking out of any meeting with the boss is the sort of thing you should expect to get fired for doing.

My guess on Wolfe is that they figure he's too old and too foreign, and my guess is that he wanted to go home.

Brandi Lauren is a great promo and a solid worker, but they have more of those than they need. AEW or ROH (or TNA, but they're women's division is pretty solid) would be very smart to pick her up.

I can also see AEW, ROH, or TNA trying to pick up and run with Duke just because of her name value.

Bourne and Devi seem like "haven't made any progress" cuts.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 19th, '21, 17:27 My guess on Wolfe is that they figure he's too old and too foreign, and my guess is that he wanted to go home.

Brandi Lauren is a great promo and a solid worker, but they have more of those than they need. AEW or ROH (or TNA, but they're women's division is pretty solid) would be very smart to pick her up.

I can also see AEW, ROH, or TNA trying to pick up and run with Duke just because of her name value.

Bourne and Devi seem like "haven't made any progress" cuts.

Wolfe's contract expires in June, so I too think it may be a matter of wanting to do something else.

I have to imagine Lauren ends up with AEW given that her boyfriend is there and it make things easier. She's worked Impact before and it's an easy schedule, so maybe

Duke could potentially try to have a couple of MMA matches, I think she still young enough for a couple of them. She seems to be all in on the twitch streaming thing too.

Bourne is one that I'm really curious to see work outside of WWE. She's been there forever and I honestly can't remember anything from her, but like Tay Conti, I'm curious to see her join a different coach and see if talent is actually there or not.

There are arguments for all names involved, but they're also all so random that I wonder if they were bunched in as a matter to indeed save their asses from a lawsuit from Drake

cero2k wrote: ↑May 19th, '21, 18:57I have to imagine Lauren ends up with AEW given that her boyfriend is there and it make things easier. She's worked Impact before and it's an easy schedule, so maybe

I'm really not sure about that. Seems to me that Janela is still there currently thanks to THE PLAGUE and with things slowly going back to normal, AEW will have to make some cuts, especially if they're going to bring people like Joe and Royce at the very least.

There are arguments for all names involved, but they're also all so random that I wonder if they were bunched in as a matter to indeed save their asses from a lawsuit from Drake

Not sure what kind of case he could have had after the whole anti-mask stuff while wearing his NXT jacket (and much more in NXT proper by the looks of it).

They were not done yesterday. is WWE finally cleaning house of controversial names?