Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[Coffey]

“I don't know if there's a pattern but I can tell you there's been a story bouncing around among talents that someone in the TKO realm isn't a fan of the darker characters and that's been the blame placed on why The Wyatts, Aleister Black, Zelina, etc. were all cut. One person even suggested to me that Undertaker being The American Badass and not The Deadman in appearances is proof of that outlook. 

I have no way to prove that is correct, but the story has made the rounds this past week among numerous people we've spoken with. Whether there is something to it, or just assumptions, I can't verify at this juncture. I guess we will see if and when WWE leans back into supernatural and dark characters again.” - Mike Johnson, PWInsider

https://pwinsider.com/article/207482/wwe-killing-off-all-their-darker-characters-black-zelina-in-aew-machineguns-were-talents-released-or-did-deals-expire-and-why-it-doesnt-matter-which-and-more.html?p=1

If this turns out to be true, that would be pretty shitty to see them shit-can a bunch of wrestlers because some Jesus-freak fuck that doesn't know shit about wrestling thinks it's THE DEVIL~! or something. Everyday, shit just gets worse. Not just in WWE either. This country is going up in flames. I'm in Michigan & our gas hit $5/gal today.

[JRH]

To be fair, outside of Taker and Kane (and they had a certain something to them), "darker" characters have never really worked in the WWE (the likes of Mankind, Edge, and Christian got much more popular when they started acting more like themselves and less like horror movie characters), but that's no reason to fire them, just give them different characters or even better, let them just act like themselves.