Braun Strowman, Lana, Aleister Black, Ruby Riott among WWE’s latest releases

Late last night, Fightful reported that another round of WWE budget cuts was pending - and that the axe could fall as soon as this week.

Now WWE has confirmed a batch of names from the third round of talent releases we’ve had in the past six weeks, and there are some huge names on the list.

Starting with former Universal champion Braun Strowman. The company seemed heavily invested in the former Strongman competitor, re-signing him to a four year contract in 2019, and regularly using him for public relations and media engagements.

Also included is Lana. Miro’s wife has seemed on the verge of a release in the past, but she got a ton of television time for a babyface push during the pandemic, so WWE appeared to be committed to keeping her around for the foreseeable future.

Aleister Black was just relaunched on SmackDown, and was poised to feud with Big E. There are also reports the company just re-signed his wife, Zelina Vega, after releasing her last year in the wake of their ban on talent running their own third-party online engagement accounts.

Ruby Riott and Buddy Murphy are somewhat less surprising, and the latter has been all but publicly asking for his release since his storyline with Seth Rollins and the Mysterios ended last year. Riott looked to be starting a television storyline with her long-time tag partner Liv Morgan last week.

NXT’s Santana Garrett is also someone fans were surprised survived the April and May cuts, as she’s been used sparingly since her signing.

More as we have it on what is obviously a huge story.