Did Vince just figure that now he has a pretty girl doing the creepy supernatural stuff, he doesn't need a fat bearded man doing the same shit? I legit don't get how he suddenly fired Wyatt lol

It's been said that he took Brodie's death really hard. This could be a case of the wrestler asking for a release to better take care of his mental health.

Yeah he's apparently had some mental health issues lately. Hope he's okay

That does make sense if Nick Khan is going about and cutting expensive contracts, that he wouldn't be allowed to sit at home while with the company, just to focus on his mental health. I hope he is okay. Terrible gimmick aside, he is a real person. I don't know how wrestlers will react to it, but all major promotions should have a therapist on call that all wrestlers suffering from mental health can go to

Alexa seems pretty shaken up over this on twitter. Seems they were close

Considering the moves they've been doing lately this doesn't shock me at all. Wyatt is probably a pretty expensive contract and seems Khan is fucking ruthless when it comes to big money being spent on people that aren't moving the needle or main eventing consistently. Wouldn't shock me either that Bray's mental health wasn't part of the equation. They can still help him out with that and release him tbf.

11 minutes ago, MoS said:

 I don't know how wrestlers will react to it, but all major promotions should have a therapist on call that all wrestlers suffering from mental health can go to

That's something I wonder tho: many wrestlers, from Ryback to Braun to Bray, have had some mental health issues. Those big companies should have not only a physician but a therapist on board, or at least pay for those bills. Shit is scary and only amplified by social media.

The promotions should absolutely be paying for the therapy and counseling sessions, especially given how obscenely expensive therapy is in the USA. I was hesitant only because wrestlers have that macho mentality and might think of going to a counselor as a sign of weakness

1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said:

 And presenting yourself as the rebel alternative doesn't work when you're dealing with corporate sponsors who are acutely sensitive to adverse publicity. WWE knows all about that after Snickers forced them to drop Moolah's name from the women's battle royal at WM34.

And following the TV-PG route that WWE has been focused on for the last decade will be a death knell. Times change. Corporate sponsors change. If they see that there's a major audience for the kind of product that AEW is presenting, blood and all, then they'll buy ad revenue.

Ditto on Wyatt. Hate his character, but he seems like a decent guy. Hope he’s ok.

I don't know how true this is, because Meltz has been getting worked by his sources recently (the GCW plant controversy) and I can't remember the last major story he broke. But if this is true, then it's pretty shameful for a billion dollar promotion making record profits to use budgetary reasons to cut one of its most featured stars of the decade, especially since it's just a couple of days after Vince joked about sending more talent to AEW. Maybe this is the "Vince sent Russo to WCW" but for real, where he is releasing as many wrestlers as he can, hoping AEW blows up their budget going after them all and get burned as a result

Budget cuts want to become the new 'deavors.

I really do hope Wyatt is ok but with all these persistent rumours of his mental health and the fact they cut him, Nick Khan really doesn’t care about being the bad guy, it’s fair to say. 
 

As for the AEW ad pressuring, I think that’s finally an admission that someone, somewhere, in WWE is a little bit worried with Punk and Bryan coming in

The odd thing is why someone who is a major merch seller would get released in a budget cut.  Like, yeah you're gonna save a few bucks emptying the 205 Live cupboard a bit, but cutting a guy who made money for the company seems like the opposite of that. 

I realize the chances of this are remote, but maybe the company is taking the heat by leaking that to take some traction off the voluntary release talk? It's definitely a new era when it comes to mental health awareness, but not everybody is comfortable being the face of the cause, especially when they're really hurting. WWE generally doesn't care about blowback over their shitty release decisions, and once in awhile they do pull a random act of kindness out of their hat.

I suppose it's possible, but that would require WWE to give a shit about talent beyond the money that can be made from them.  After all, there are multiple instances of WWF/F looking to let people go because they were afraid they would die on their watch, so I would hope something has been improved. 

It could be a random act of kindness, yes, but at the same time it could be that Nick Shao Khan saw how many matches Bray was working, how much he was making, and decided to cut him.

It's still Vince's call. As confusing as it is considering how much time they invested in Bray, he'd still be employed if Vince wanted him.

Also they were advertising him to return soon, so another dagger to the "plans change is just an excuse for when they lying dirt sheets are wrong" community. 

If he was prepping a return and they were already advertising him, then it definitely feels like a "fuck it he's worked once in 8 months and we have Bliss doing his gimmick anyway" decision.

Speaking of,  Alexa seems pretty shook about him getting released and made her Twitter private. 

Some of the recent WWE releases have felt really peculiar to me. They're just all over the place. Cutting someone like Lars Sullivan made sense but in 2021 alone, WWE has released so many people, a lot of which were even on current TV when they cut them. Andrade, Tyler Breeze & Fandango, Ruby Riott, Lana, Buddy Murphy, Aleister Black, Braun Strowman, The IIConics... citing "budget cuts" for the reason for, I think, all of them? Now Bray Wyatt too. It's just really odd. 

If it were really budgetary reasons, when they're making the most money they ever have, they could have easily released people that wouldn't have had nearly as much name value & probably saved comparable money. Like, yes, a person like Bray or Braun is going to earn more than someone that is like off-TV developmental talent, but just go to WWE.com & look at the Superstars page to see how massive their roster still is.

I think that's Nick Khan. Before wwe tried not to release anyone who was getting tv time or was getting pushed to any degree. Khan convinced them it doesn't matter either way

I think about half of the releases make sense as they were people who had been around forever and long ago hit their ceiling and they weren't going to be used for anything important ever again (if they ever were at all). Breezango, IIconics, Lana, Chelsea Greene, even Ruby Riott to some degree (although I think that was a bad cut as the women's division very much needs someone as solid as her right now) all make sense as cuts to me. Murphy, Black, Braun, Andrade definitely do not. 

According to PWI, people are "shocked" backstage over Wyatt's release. As mentioned before Alexa seemed to take it pretty bad as she seemed shook up over it