I don’t like to talk in terms of who does/doesn’t deserve a job, but main roster WWE has 50+ men and 30+ women (including injured, but not including part-timers) plus NXT. The roster has been bloated for years, and new ownership is a logical reason (whether you see it as legitimate or an excuse) to make some cuts.
I hope everybody let go today ends up gainfully employed, and at least a few of them will likely end up getting a significant run somewhere else, but these cuts all make sense.
Never thought I’d see the day that Dolph Ziggler hit the open market. But it was well past due for him to do something else.
Fwiw this is likely wave 1. When the non competes come up and other promotions start spending on this wave, they’ll do a second wave. Real “Choke on That” strategy to competition and these names aren’t cutting enough costs. It’ll get interesting with renewals and bigger talent names. They need to move commas, not decimals.
This is such a horrible day. Those bastards make record profits in one day and they fire all these people. Couldn’t have let their contracts run out at least like Tony does?
This is what Endeavor does. It’s why I laugh when people think WWE will make these free agent splash’s. It will be treated the exact same way as UFC. Nothing special unless they have to
To be fair, the market was pretty conservative in hires last time WWE essentially flooded the market with talent. Bigger names like Bray, and Braun most notably, were left unemployed.
I think it depends on the talent. Endeavor has no problem spending on people like Conner, which in WWE world are people like Roman, Rollins, and to a lesser extent Owens, Zayn etc. Now when it comes to mid carders (tie the Chad Gables of the world), I agree.
I think Bray was more injury related though (long Covid) it seems so unlikely he was going anywhere once healthy as they would resign him.
Braun was likely a price tag issue I’m sure and I believe he’s bad mouthed AEW in the past.
AEW does bring in a lot of mid to low card talent (obviously any top tier they will try for like Bryan etc). Some have worked out (ie Claudio, Athena, Toni storm) but most are either not used much (ie Spears) or just now getting traction (ie Miro)
They need to be sensible with who they take
That being said I can see Ali getting a shot and Ziggler. A lot of the others (ie Elias) seem more Impact level
I see some sentiment around Ali as being lukewarm in recent months, and I think some took his bad booking as being some indictment as to his abilities.
It was only a couple years ago when Ali was shooting his own promos and the internet was clamoring for him unleashing this side of his persona on TV if given an opportunity. But it’s not like he was given some Steven Soderbergh level writing. He had Retribution, getting punked by Lashley, and then a wishy washy NA title challenger status.
I don’t think it’s a big stretch to say that he’s the best South Asian wrestler. And I also think that if channeled through a particular sieve, he can be a really compelling babyface. As I mentioned earlier, there hasn’t been effective non stereotypical South Asian representation in pro wrestling and he’s also from Chicago, and we all know how much they love running shows in Chicago.
Unfortunately, that’s the consequence to bad booking. Bad booking/storytelling will slowly deteriorate the allure of a performer, just as good booking will do the opposite. Perfect example on the other side of the spectrum is Maxine Dupri. Very little wrestling talent, but she’s been booked in a way where a suplex gets more reaction then Ali doing a 450.
Regardless, I think Ali is talented enough where if he lands in the right situation and is booked well, he’ll get to where he should be rather quickly. I agree with everything you said about his talent.
Mace & Mansoor had a fun stream the other day on Mace’s Twitch, GreatBlackOtaku. Included two pitch videos they made for new characters, the origins of the gimmick, Retribution, Mace doing commentary, etc. Just a fun conversation between two buds.
