Photo Courtesy of Flickr-Ed Webster
The U.S. Department of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics most recently reported a total of 1,651 layoffs and discharges for all industries, as of April 2014*. Unfortunately, many current WWE Superstars will be joining the next round of statistics as they have been released from their current position on the roster.
You might have heard by now that several WWE superstars and have been released from their contracts. The current roster of released personalities includes the likes Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre of 3MB, WWE Diva Aksana, Curt Hawkins, Yoshi Tatsu, JTG, and WWE announcer Josh Matthews. It appears that the WWE is making every attempt to cut cost and maintain a healthy financial balance. After all, it just last month that Vince MchMahon’s net worth took a whopping hit of approximately $350 million. Couple this with reports that the WWE Network’s subscriber base has yet to reach it’s projected 1 million subscribers (current reports state approx. 670,000 total), and one could make a strong case for dropping what has been perceived to be “dead weight”.
On the contrary, one could argue that the talent mentioned above are indeed quality competitors who haven’t been given their fair shake. At least in the case of Mahal and McIntyre, there was a lot that could have been done to escalate their status from a band of jobbers to legitimate competition. Mahal states it best in his own excerpt from a recent interview with Slam Wrestling:
“I was surprised, because we were pretty well booked on everything. We were on a lot of the live events, a lot of the overseas tours. We were always on RAW and Smackdown, and if we weren’t, we would do Superstars or Main Event in the week. So yeah, I was surprised.”
I was quite surprised to read that two of the three members of 3MB, who’ve worked hard to make a lasting impression night after night, have been kicked to the proverbial curb. The major disappointment of these two being released is the fact that they are a legitimate tag team, out of a legitimate faction, with a legitimate gimmick. Aside from The Usos, The Wyatts, and Los Matadores WWE has no believable cohesive tag teams. Tag team wrestling is currently at an overall decline across the board in the industry and WWE has just driven one more nail in the coffin. I’m sorry to say that this was not a smart move.
In addition to the poor decision of releasing a potentially excellent tag team, WWE has cocked back their metaphoric revolver and blasted off its own toe. How did they do this? They fired one of the best analyst in the business today, Josh Matthews. I’ll be honest and go on the record by saying that I never thought much of his Matthews. However, when he was placed in the position to shine during the preceding events of Wrestlemania XXX, I began to take notice. The truth of the matter is that Matthews presents a legitimate and factual style of reporting. He ask all the right questions and facilitates the panel discussions with Booker T and Alex Riley like a true professional. Josh Matthews, unlike Michael Cole or Jerry Lawler, has made me believe in good commentary yet again. I can’t express enough on how his unexpected departure from the company is disheartening.
Overall, WWE is rumored to have placed more individuals on the chopping block. Maybe the show will go on just fine without them, but it burns me up nonetheless. You can expect to read some more vehement rants on why their decisions cut quality talent are born out of pure idiocy. Stay tuned and let me know your feedback. Do you miss the recently departed or are you wishing them a good riddance?