Rumor Roundup special edition: WWE surprise releases

After this morning’s shocking list of WWE talent releases, there’s been a lot of chatter about what happened, and what this means.

This special edition of our Rumor Roundup feature is a way to put those various tidbits in one place and give you a chance to discuss them. Feel free to share anything you’ve heard or read in the comments (usual rumor caveats* apply)!

Rumors about WWE’s June 2 talent releases:

• According to Fightful Select, “a few select people” at WWE knew about the releases yesterday afternoon, and the plan was to call talent this morning. A lot of the site’s sources were surprised by the cuts, and asked Fightful if they knew what “the endgame” was.
• Regarding that endgame, fans and insiders are speculating the moves could be a sign the company is up for sale, but Fightful hasn’t heard anything about that from WWE officials.
• In terms of how quickly these plans seem to have come together, PW Insider says Santana Garrett was set to debut on SmackDown this Friday.
• One name people backstage weren’t surprised to hear about was Braun Strowman. Fightful was told Strowman’s 2019 contract was a “monster deal” worth more than $1 million per year, so there’s considerable cost savings in moving on from Braun.
• “Ruby Riott’s release definitely seemed to shake the WWE roster the most,” according to Fightful’s sources. Riott was “universally popular backstage”, and praised as a hard worker.
• Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian claims some of the people “were looking to get released” as “WWE has taken a different approach when it comes to this.”
• Zarian also says he was told “it’s expected more releases will be coming.”

* If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you’d like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Just remember they are rumors and not confirmed as fact, so please take them as such. And check our weekly Rumor Look Back here to keep track of how often rumors turn out to be correct.