Category: WWE

Nia Jax Among Four WWE Stars Released Reportedly Because They Were Unvaccinated

Nia Jax was reportedly released by WWE because she’d refused to be vaccinated. She might not have been the only one.

According to a report following the numerous talent releases by WWE on Thursday, some of the cuts were not made for budgetary reasons. Instead, as many as four different WWE Superstars, including Nia Jax, were released because they were unvaccinated.

Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast is reporting that possibly four wrestlers were released by WWE because they were not vaccinated. This comes following a report by the New York Post: “A source with knowledge of WWE’s operations told The Post that one of the reasons Nia Jax, a former WWE Raw Women’s Champion, was released is that she is unvaccinated.” The names of the other three superstars have not been released and at this point, any mention of stars beyond Jax would be pure speculation.

If Jax was refusing to get vaccinated, it may explain why she was off of WWE programming. She was written out of storylines after being attacked by Shayna Baszler in September. She’s not returned since. At the time, WWE wrote, “Nia Jax suffered an elbow posterior fracture and dislocation to her left elbow which will require surgery, and she will be out for an undisclosed amount of time.” The assumption was that this was storyline related and she’d pick up her feud with Baszler at a later date. Her release on Thursday obviously means that won’t be happening.

If the New York Post report is accurate and if Zarian’s follow-up that as many as four wrestlers were let go for this reason is true, one has to wonder if and when others will be released for the same reason. WWE is likely looking to limit potential outbreaks among the roster and this could be a policy that was not made public. If so, will this change the opinions of some who were not being vaccinated but will now have to be to save their jobs?

Source: TheSportster

WWE Announces $256 Million Revenue As It Blames Releases On Budget Cuts

The financial call took place right before news of Thursday’s releases started to filter through.

WWE announced it generated almost $256 million in revenue in one quarter on the same day it released multiple Superstars due to budget cuts.

The phrase too big to fail is often thrown around in the business world. Some fans might say WWE now falls into that bracket. It is a massive and well-oiled machine that has turned Vince McMahon from a millionaire into a billionaire. During the last quarter alone WWE generated $256 million, as was revealed during the company’s latest financial report.

The report was published on Thursday of this week and then dissected by a number of WWE higher-ups during a quarterly financial call. The $255.8 million of revenue is $34.2 million more than the promotion generated during the same three-month period in 2020.

Since that period took place during lockdown last year, WWE has attributed the uptick in revenue to ticket sales, for the most part. Fans were allowed to return to buildings, and WWE returned to touring, in late July, meaning almost the entire quarter included ticket sales for the first time since spring of 2020.

What won’t sit well with fans is the timing of this reveal. The financial call took place directly before news of WWE’s latest batch of releases started to filter through on social media. That likely means the talent being let go was called and informed they were losing their jobs while the financial call was in process. It has also been reported that those released were given little more than “budget cuts” as the reason for being shown the door.

The wrestling world is still trying to digest who WWE released on Thursday and figure out where the company went so wrong with some of the soon-to-be free agents. Karrion Kross and Keith Lee are at the top of the list when it comes to head-scratchers. Scarlett falls into that bracket too, as does Hit Row’s B-Fab who was only called up with the rest of the former NXT faction during last month’s draft.

Source: TheSportster

Karrion Kross, Keith Lee, Nia Jax, Ember Moon, Franky Monet, Eva Marie And More Released By WWE

WWE has reportedly released multiple members of its roster including Keith Lee, Ember Moon, Karrion Kross, Nia Jax, Oney Lorcan, Franky Monet, Mia Yim, and Hit Row’s B-Fab, who was recently called up to the main roster.

Per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, the current list of released Superstars is as follows:

  • Keith Lee
  • Mia Yim
  • Nia Jax
  • Karrion Kross
  • Scarlet Bordeaux
  • Oney Lorcan
  • Ember Moon
  • Franky Monet
  • B-Fab
  • Jessi Kamea
  • Gran Metalik
  • Lince Dorado
  • Trey Baxter
  • Zayder Ramier
  • Jeet Rama
  • Katrina Cortez
  • Eva Marie
  • Harry Smith
https://twitter.com/_denisesalcedo/status/1456416341590642720

This week’s releases bring WWE’s total to 71 for the year.

WWE Office Departure Reportedly Shocks Many Within The Company

There were reportedly multiple WWE office departures this week.

Long-time WWE Senior Vice President of Creative Services Stan Stanski was reportedly released on Wednesday, according to PWInsider. Stanski had been with the company for almost 15 years.

Stanski joined WWE back in 2006 as the Vice President of Creative Services, and was promoted in March 2012 to the SVP role.

Stanski’s departure shocked many within the company on Wednesday. One person described the departure as “the ultimate proof no one is safe” and “yet another reminder this isn’t the same company it was a year ago.”

It’s expected that more departures will be confirmed soon, but Stanski was the most high-profile exit from the company on Wednesday.

The Rock Announces Seven Bucks Productions Change: “We Won’t Use Real Guns At All”

The recent tragedy involving Alec Baldwin and Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust has rocked the entertainment world and sparked major conversations for change within the movie industry. The Rock has been part of those and has come out to make his stance about guns on film sets very clear.

The Rock recently spoke with Variety where he announced that from now on Seven Bucks Productions will no longer use real guns on set. Whether it is filming a movie or a television show, making it clear that it doesn’t matter what it costs.

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions — any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce — we won’t use real guns at all,” Johnson said.

“We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post. We’re not going to worry about the dollars; we won’t worry about what it costs.”

Dwayne Johson revealed that just hours after the sad news of Hutchins’ passing he got onto the phone and began discussing how things can change. Reaffirming that the rule will be no real guns, no matter what studio they work with.

“I love the movie business,” Johnson said. “There are safety protocols and measures that we have always taken in the movie business and we take very seriously, and these sets are safe sets, and we’re proud of that. But accidents do happen. And when something like this happens of this magnitude, [that is] this heartbreaking, I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together.”

“Any movie we do that Seven Bucks does with any studio, the rule is we’re not going to use real guns. That’s it.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE NXT Preview 11/2/21

Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode on the USA Network will feature fallout from last week’s Halloween Havoc special.

Toxic Attraction is also expected to appear tonight to celebrate last week’s title wins. Mandy Rose captured the NXT Women’s Title from Raquel Gonzalez, while Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne won the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles in a Scareway to Hell Ladder Match with Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta, and the former champions, Io Shirai and Zoey Stark.

The Miz Eliminated From ABC’s Dancing With The Stars

WWE Superstar The Miz has been eliminated from ABC’s thirtieth season of Dancing With The Stars.

Monday’s DWTS episode had a Queen-theme. Miz and dance pro Witney Carson first went with a foxtrot to Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga” single, and later performed the jive relay with two other low-scoring couples, to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” single. They failed to advance as they came up short with a score of 32 out of 40, tied with Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach for the lowest score of the night on the initial performance.

The bottom two couples of the night were Miz and Witney, along with JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson. Team Miz ended up getting the elimination.

The Miz received praise from the judges for most of his DWTS performances, making it to Week 7 of the competition.

Miz has not commented on his elimination as of this writing, but we will keep you updated.

There is no word on when The Miz will return to the WWE RAW storylines, but it should be in the near future. He had been feuding with former tag team partner John Morrison when he was taken off TV for Dancing With The Stars, right before their first match was to take place in the feud. Miz and Morrison were both drafted to stay on RAW.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AJ Styles Reportedly Out Of WWE Action With “Non-Injury Medical Issue”

AJ Styles and Omos lost their RAW Tag Team Titles to RK-Bro at WWE Crown Jewel. Since then, Omos has been at RAW working towards getting the titles back from RK-Bro while also dealing with The Dirty Dawgs and the Street Profits, all with Styles not be his side.

On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that Styles has been out these past few weeks with a “non-injury medical issue”. There were no other details beyond that.

On last night’s episode of RAW, Omos came out during the Street Profits vs. The Dirty Dawgs match. Omos’ distraction was enough to help Ziggler pick up the win for his team. Omos then threw Montez Ford over the barricade. After that, he confronted RAW Tag Champs Riddle and Randy Orton.

Omos has yet to have a match on his own since Crown Jewel, and Styles has rarely been mentioned on TV.

WWE Announces Celebration For 25-Year Anniversary Of The Rock’s Debut

Nov. 17 will mark the 25-year anniversary of The Rock’s WWE debut. The company announced plans to celebrate it “all month long.”

The 25-year anniversary of The Rock’s professional wrestling match debut is coming up, and WWE has plans to honor the sports entertainment legend.

Nov. 17 will mark 25 years since the wrestler-turned-actor debuted for WWE at the Survivor Series 1996 pay-per-view. He debuted under the ring name “Rocky Maivia”, winning a 4-on-4 tag team elimination match by last eliminating Crush and Goldust.

On Monday, WWE announced that they will be celebrating the 25-year anniversary of The Rock’s debut throughout the month of November:

WWE uploaded two videos featuring The Rock on their YouTube channel on Monday. One of them is a montage of all The Rock’s WWE Championship wins, and the other is his singles match against Hall of Famer Kurt Angle on the July 18, 2002 episode of SmackDown. That bout resulted in a disqualification when The Undertaker interruptred and attacked The Rock.

The Rock emerged as one of the two new main event babyfaces of WWE during the Atittude Era, along with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Both wrestlers were instrumental in helping the company defeat the rival WCW promotion in the “Monday Night Wars”. Their respective arrivals came at much-needed times, as WCW was on the verge of putting Vince McMahon and company out of business.

It was previously reported that WWE was hoping to bring in The Rock for Survivor Series 2021, which will run on Nov. 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. However, he will reportedly be occupied filming in Australia during the marquee event.

It’s been more than five and a half years since The Rock last wrestled a WWE match. That took place at WrestleMania 32, where he defeated Erick Rowan via pinfall in just six seconds. The Rock was subsequently surrounded by The Wyatt Family, but John Cena — who was sidelined while recovering from shoulder surgery at the time — showed up to aid his former rival.

Source: TheSportster

WWE RAW Preview 11/1/21

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

For what it’s worth, the WWE website has Karrion Kross advertised for tonight’s show. He has been away for a few weeks amid rumors of another change to his character. Bobby Lashley is also advertised, which would be his first appearance since losing to WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg at Crown Jewel.