10 of the most shocking WWE releases of the past decade

#1 Austin Aries

Austin Aries was released from WWE back in July 2017

Austin Aries turned quite a few heads when he made his debut on the NXT roster back in March 2016. Aries managed to climb through the ranks but after suffering an orbital socket injury at a live event a few months later, he was put behind the commentary desk for 205 Live events.

Aries was later able to move over to the Cruiserweight Division and despite challenging Neville a number of times for the Cruiserweight Championship, he was unsuccessful on every occasion.

Aries challenged Neville at WrestleMania when the duo was a part of the kickoff show and this was one of the reasons that Aries was said to be unhappy with his position in the company. Aries found out that he wouldn't be receiving any royalties for his match at "The Showcase of the Immortals" since he wasn't included on the DVD.

There were a number of conflicting reports following Aries release back in July that stated that Aries was unpopular backstage and was actually fired and didn't ask for his release. Aries' non-compete clause ran out in October 2017, which means he is now free to make a return to Impact Wrestling.