NXT’s Ikemen Jiro released by WWE

The latest person confirmed to have lost their job with WWE in this week’s budget cuts is Ikemen Jiro. PWInsider first reported Jiro’s release.

The 31 year old from Tokyo, real name Sōjirō Higuchi, signed with WWE in December of 2020. Much of his career prior to that was with the Japanese promotion WRESTLE-1, where he worked for almost seven years as Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio.

In WWE, he started on 205 Live before moving over to NXT. Jiro was a comedy act for WWE, wearing and wrestling in colorful blazers. His most prominent role on television was as one-half of the Jacket Time tag team with KUSHIDA.

After KUSHIDA left WWE and returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the middle of last year, Jiro continued to wrestle on NXT and its b-show Level Up — but not in anything designed to gain traction on television.

We’ll see what he does next. You can find a full list of this week’s WWE talent releases here.