Thursday was a rough day for the locker room, but it could have been worse-several Superstars barely survived those releases. Plus, WWE actually had Mia Yim plans before letting her go.
Several Superstars Barely Survived Releases
As bad as the most recent batch of cuts happened to be, it could have been worse. Several Superstars barely survived that wave of releases.
Specifically, some older NXT Superstars narrowly escaped the ax…for now.
In a report via the Wrestling Observer, several Superstars on the black and yellow brand barely survived.
Among those called out were Danny Burch and Timothy Thatcher. Both are seasoned veterans who have not seen as much television time of late.
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Others mentioned included Kyle O’Reilly and Johnny Gargano.
In the case of Gargano, this could be a matter of WWE just allowing his contract to expire. Per earlier reports, Johnny Wrestling’s NXT contract is over before the end of the year.
There is no word on O’Reilly’s contract status at the moment, but it’s understandable if his NXT-and WWE-status is in doubt.
His former stable is gone, and two of his former stablemates are now in AEW.
One name that seems to be sticking around? Tommaso Ciampa, the current NXT Champion.
While Vince McMahon clearly wants the NXT 2.0 reboot to promote youth and green talent over age and experience, there is room for a veteran like Ciampa.
After all, someone has to put over the future of the company…whether that is Bronn Breaker or anyone else working in the Performance Center.
Should WWE opt for more releases in the near future, it would not be stunning to see some of those Superstars let go.
WWE Had Mia Yim Plans
Speaking of recent releases…it’s a bit of a surprise but it seems WWE may have had Mia Yim plans prior to her being let go.
Those plans took a bit too long to materialize, of course.
Yim, along with fiancee Keith Lee and a number of other Superstars, was released on Thursday.
Per Fightful, WWE had some Mia Yim plans. Obviously, those plans were never executed.
Yim was one of several released Superstars who were named as part of the 2021 WWE Draft…proving just further proof that the event means nothing.
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Not that we needed more proof…
The report did not specify exactly what plans were cooked up, just that WWE had some plans.
Of course, Yim didn’t work much in 2021 for WWE. The former member of Retribution missed a chunk of time early in the year due to COVID.
Since then, she was off television while WWE’s confounding creative team worked to find some way to bring her back on television.
She had seemingly been passed, back and forth, between brands over the year (outside of the draft).
All the shuffling never amounted to anything meaningful, and now we will have to wait and see.
Yim, like many others, will be able to work somewhere else in 90 days.
Of all those talents set free last week, it would seem that Mia Yim would be one of the more likely to have a high degree of interest.
