Over on Friday night, more than a dozen of WWE NXT talents were released continuing the recent spree of WWE releases (overall 119 wrestlers have been released in the span of a couple of years) that started a year ago. The released talents included big names like Bronson Reed and Mercedes Martinez who were mainstay names for the third brand. Reports noted that Vince McMahon was the lead in this spree of releases.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer has now provided more updates on the situation. It was noted that these WWE NXT cuts are part of a larger change that is upcoming in philosophy for the black and yellow brand. He noted that Bruce Prichard and John Laurinaitis were also behind these cuts along with McMahon.
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The other head honchos Triple H and Shawn Michaels were not responsible for these cuts. WWE NXT was on the losing side of the “Wednesday Night War” to AEW Dynamite. Hence, the top management wants to return to the older style of development where bigger and younger guys get the priority. The change would be similar to the original format of NXT back in 2010.
McMahon is also pulling the plug on WWE NXT
Meltzer continued by saying that there are different opinions about WWE NXT about wrestling amongst the key people in WWE, and they are all fighting to insert those to McMahon’s ear. For now, this is the current direction that has been decided upon, but things can always change, possibly on the outcome.
Per Meltzer’s exact wording regarding the new changes for WWE NXT, “no more midgets, no one starting in their 30s. They want people that can be box office attractions and main characters.”
Despite this new change in direction, there will always be exceptions like Adam Cole who’s been a star around the indie circuit. There’s been trying to keep him under the WWE banner for the past few weeks.
Wrestling Inc. exclusively reported that Adam Cole’s contract will expire this month after SummerSlam. Cole also had a meeting with Vince McMahon a few hours before this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown from Miami, Florida. Meltzer then noted that writers have been told to write main roster storylines for the former WWE NXT Champion. Cole has been with the WWE since 2017 and he has spent most of the time on NXT.