News behind WWE releases (Patreon)

A huge number of WWE cuts were made on April 24.

The cuts were hugely speculated by talent all week, especially on Friday at 5 PM approached.

A number of talent began to find out around or before 5 PM ET that they were released or their deals would not be extended. At about 5:20 PM ET, we began learning that the releases were in fact happening, after reaching out to WWE officially earlier in the day and not hearing back. We haven't learned specifics on which is which, but that's why the phrase "departures" were used. There was also an internal email sent out to some departments notifying them of the departures.

As Michael Dockins pointed out, these are not 90 day non-competes. The talent are still under contract for this period. This is the 90 day right of termination and requisite notice. For main roster talent, that period is 90 days. For NXT, it's 30. For contract expirations, their deals are simply up when they expire.

There is a lot of talk of TKO making the calls for the cuts. Triple H, Nick Khan and WWE talent relations were ultimately the primary decision makers, per WWE sources.

WWE sources indicated that majority of releases were to make way for new talent, and the possibility of Smackdown reducing to two hours in the near future (a point that was reported by Bodyslam+).

WWE anxiously re-signed Santos Escobar last year, and then never used him on the main roster again. He's injured and will be sidelined for months. This used to be against the company's policy, but has happened a number of times in recent years as Karl Anderson, BJ Ray and Ridge Holland were all released or not extended while they were awaiting clearance. We're told Zoey Stark recently got cleared to return to the ring.

There was a ton of shock to Kairi Sane's release, as she was actively involved in the Asuka and IYO Sky storyline. There was heavy frustration to her being cut before any real payoff to the story was made. She's expected to land in literally any company that she wants to.

A number of NXT releases were also made as new Performance Center signings are expected to be announced soon.

It is important to note that Fightful never has, and never will paywall names of released talent. We have also never, ever reported the names of released talent before they are informed themselves.