WWE releases

[PeteF3]

Maybe should have its own thread.

 

Emma, Summer Rae, and Darren Young are all gone. When Emma was released there was talk that more would follow. Don't know if that just means the next two or if there will still be more.

[The Chief]

Summer has been off TV for a year and wasn't doing much before so that's not a shock.

 

D. Young is a bit of a surprise but he's always hurt.

 

Struggling to remember the last time they've released people as opposed to guys requesting releases or contracts expiring. It's been a while.

[hammerva]

Boy that makes the Emma vs Asuka match at last PPV even more confusing. Guess this was a sudden decision to start releasing people.

 

Will be interesting if they get any backlash (undeserved IMO) of release Darren Young.

[C.S.]

Darren Young was toast the minute they shifted "the first openly gay WWE superstar" designation to Pat Patterson. Granted, it's true in Pat's case, but still.

 

I hope we don't see Rusev and/or Lana on this list today.

[FMKK]

I know a lot will be said about Emma but I thought Summer could have made a cool valet and she was entertaining in that Rusev angle last year, as rough as it was at times. I guess she's probably too similar to Lana and Marcuse already doing similar gimmicks in their mind but there's always room for more seconds to help get acts over.

[Kadaveri]

Lio Rush is busy getting heat on himself on Twitter saying Emma was 'not ready for Asuka'.

 

Edit: Uh oh.

[C.S.]

Lio Rush is busy getting heat on himself on Twitter saying Emma was 'not ready for Asuka'.

 

Edit: Uh oh.

 

Just came here to post this.

 

What an immature infant.

 

I realize he's only 23, but damn, son! Is he really this naive about where he works? More importantly, is he really this tone deaf in the empathy department?

 

I never actively root for anyone to lose a job, but I wouldn't be disappointed if thin-skinned WWE shows him the door over this. He obviously still has a lot of growing up to do.

[hammerva]

Yeah he picked the wrong time to be ha ha funny if you actually consider it funny. I don't think he was being mean spirited with the tweet. It isn't like Emma was some developmental rookie that only the hardcores know. She has been around for at least 5 years with plenty of friends on the inside.

 

I remember watching one of Shane Strickland's show on the Highspots Network with Eddie Kingston and Kingston told Lio to his face that at first glance on twitter he thought he was a jerk.

[C.S.]

Lio "The Infant" Rush already "apologized." What a childish "looser."

 

 

https://twitter.com/itsLioRush/status/924717038874120192

[Kadaveri]

'I'm sorry my bad joke got completely blown out of proportion and may have been seen as inappropriate' isn't a great apology.

 

Also popped for putting 'ENTERTAINMENT' in all caps for some reason.

[Matt D]

He just have just responded to everyone with a simple "kayfabe" and moved on.

[FMKK]

It was a dumb joke but it has been pretty much blown out of proportion. I don't know much about the guy but if he already has a reputation for being annoying then I think that's doing as much damage as the joke itself.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Time for Darren Young to take Reseda by storm.

[Kadaveri]

I'm not personally offended, just interested in what'll happen. It's known that the WWE locker room has a certain culture around respect and seniority, so making fun of someone getting fired when you've just arrived is pretty stupid.

[goc]

Lio Rush made a really stupid tweet but yea it's been blown way out of proportion. Not nearly as bad as ruining a PPV main event by spreading the plague after you already got bad publicity earlier in the year from cheating on your wife with a fellow employee.

 

As far as the releases go, I think Summer Rae is the only one who really got shafted. Summer very rarely got opportunities to do anything but when she DID get TV time she always delivered. She was great in the Rusev angle when Lana & Dolph Ziggler were putting in all time bad character work.

 

Darren Young wasn't that good and was never gonna go higher in the company than where he already was. And I know people are gonna talk about how much potential they wasted with Emma but I can also see why the company wouldn't have any real faith in her. They did months of vignettes to get over her new character where she would have gotten a big push and then it was reported she was halfheartedly doing the Emmalina gimmick on house shows because she didn't like it and WWE had to scrap everything and revert her back. It's like if you got a promotion at your job and did a crappy job on purpose because you didn't like the new department you were in and were hoping to just get moved back down to your old job. They might just decide you're not worth the trouble.

[Microstatistics]

Yeah the reaction to the tweet is a little over the top IMO atleast. Wrong place, wrong time for making a dumb joke definitely but the actual content was pretty inoffensive.

[Kadaveri]

I think the reaction is more that loads of wrestlers already don't like him. Like El Ligero just said this on Twitter "Have you met him? I also have, and he spent 2 days acting self-important and arrogant. To the point where the roster asked the promoter not to bring him back."

[Log]

Not nearly as bad as ruining a PPV main event by spreading the plague after you already got bad publicity earlier in the year from cheating on your wife with a fellow employee.

 

Whos that? I dont know that story.

[goc]

Bray Wyatt

[SirEdger]

As for Lio Rush, given his past reputation in the indies with maturity issues, I'm not stunned that this happened although I'm a bit stunned it happened that quickly. I don't think we're gonna see him on TV anytime soon and he's gonna have to earn everyone's respect at the WWE PC until then.

 

About the releases, given Summer Rae hadn't been on TV for a year and Darren Young always being injured, it should come as no surprise to anyone. However, for Emma, with her recent program with Asuka just a week ago, it's a bit surprising that they decided to release her this quick after Asuka's debut. So I'm on board with those thinking she asked for her release. People are assuming that her heartbroken emoji tweet on the matter suggests that she didn't but it doesn't make it any less heartbreaking to have to come down to that position when WWE has been your dream job all your life. However, I'm not worried for Emma since she's gonna make a truckload of money. I bet she'll be heavily featured on SHIMMER or SHINE in no time.

[topropepodcast]

I don't think there's a truckload of money in women's indy wrestling. If ROH had a legit woman's division and there was a stronger Joshi scene, maybe, but I wouldn't be surprised if she focused on modeling.

[C.S.]

...but I wouldn't be surprised if she focused on modeling.

Huh? The same Emma who sandbagged the "sexy" Emmalina gimmick is suddenly going to become a model?!

[SteveJRogers]

Summer has been off TV for a year and wasn't doing much before so that's not a shock.

 

D. Young is a bit of a surprise but he's always hurt.

 

Struggling to remember the last time they've released people as opposed to guys requesting releases or contracts expiring. It's been a while.

When McIntyre and Mahal made Slater a One-Man-Band.

[EricR]

Summer Rae's pop ins on Total Divas were far and away the best parts of that show. So that's too bad.

[sek69]

 

...but I wouldn't be surprised if she focused on modeling.

Huh? The same Emma who sandbagged the "sexy" Emmalina gimmick is suddenly going to become a model?!

 

 

 

What's weird is that all the stuff they were doing to built up Emmalina she was already doing on her Instagram so it was strange to me she had issues pulling it off as a gimmick.

 

 

Also weird is all the people in WWE reacting as if she died as opposed to just getting released. All the "we'll always remember you" stuff seemed a bit melodramatic.

 

 

Hope Lio enjoys being the new Heath Slater, there's no way he's going to escape their doghouse at this point.