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In April, after WrestleMania, WWE released a variety of names including Samoa Joe, The IIconics, Chelsea Green, Mickie James, Tucker, Bo Dallas and Mojo Rawley.
WWE would then go on to release a further group of even more surprising superstars, with Braun Strowman, Buddy Murphy, Lana, Ruby Riott, Aleister Black and Santana Garrett also being let go.
Earlier today, several prominent wrestling journalists, including Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, reported that more releases were incoming and true enough. Unfortunately, more WWE releases did indeed happen.
WWE turned its attention towards 205 LIVE and NXT with several wrestlers from both shows being let go. Among today's list were, as was the case with the previous two sets of releases, several surprising names.
Here's a list of everyone WWE has let go today.
Update: At the time of writing, this was a list of all released Superstars, however WWE released a twelfth wrestler later in the day. That wrestler was Tino Sabbatelli, as detailed below
#11. WWE 205 Live Superstar Ariya Daivari
WWE seems determined to keep the Daivari brothers apart. No sooner had they rehired Shawn Daivari as a producer after releasing him last year during the pandemic, they'd released his brother and 205 Live mainstay Ariya Daivari.
Daivari has been a pivotal member of WWE's cruiserweight division. He joined the company as part of the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, where he lost in the first round against Ho Ho Lun.
He's been with WWE ever since. The most notable moment of his career (outside of the fantastic matches he's put on weekly on the purple brand) was when he appeared on The Greatest Royal Rumble Saudi Arabia alongside his brother.
Daivari recently formed a tag team with Tony Nese. Calling themselves the "205 Live OGs," the pair were having fantastic matches on 205 Live. However, that's been cut short now.
#10. Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Tony Nese
WWE didn't stop at releasing just Ariya Daivari, however, as they have also released fellow 205 Live mainstay and all-around top athlete, Tony Nese from his WWE contract.
Nese was always a guy with a whole ton of potential. At one point WWE even agreed as they had him beat Buddy Murphy in a WrestleMania kick-off show to win the Cruiserweight Title.
After posting the above 'welp' tweet, Tony Nese followed up with another tweet extolling the virtues of his time on 205 Live and how proud he was of the work he did on the brand.
Nese joins the ever-growing list of released former Cruiserweight Champions that includes Rich Swann, Enzo Amore, Neville (PAC), TJP, Kalisto, Buddy Murphy and Lio Rush.
Tony Nese is definitely a guy who will make any promotion he's in better and he's someone I'd fully expect to land on his feet somewhere else.
#9. WWE NXT tag team Ever-Rise
Ever-Rise were a big part of recent NXT television episodes and looked set to be entering into an ongoing feud with new WWE stable Hit Row. However, that won't be happening anymore as the team are among today's WWE releases.
The pair had literally also just had a YouTube show debut yesterday on the 24th of June called Ever-Rise Live, so it's clear that this set of releases hasn't taken into account things that each superstar had going on already.
The tag team, consisting of Canadian wrestlers Matt Martel and Chase Parker, formerly known as Team 3.0 had only signed a contract with WWE in 2019, so they've only made it two years in the company.
Ever-Rise never really got going in WWE and will be leaving the promotion without having won any gold, which seems a huge shame for a pair as talented and amusing as they've been in their limited onscreen time.
Both men are yet to react to their releases on social media.
#8. Former WWE NXT Tag Team Champion Fandango
At one point Fandango was the most over superstar in the entire WWE, with crowds all over the world singing along to his theme tune. However, the man many people call one of WWE's most underappreciated in-ring talents never achieved success equal with that reaction in WWE.
The popular superstar achieved most of his success in WWE as part of a brilliant partnership with fellow current NXT star Tyler Breeze. The pair were hugely fun as The Fashion Police and great as Breezango. They even won the NXT Tag Team Championships together.
Prior to becoming Fandango, he was known as Johnny Curtis and won the fourth season of NXT. He signed for WWE in 2006 and was sent to their Deep South Wrestling developmental territory before moving to Florida Championship Wrestling in 2008 and then NXT in 2010.
It's a massive shame that Fandango has been released given he's been with WWE for such a long amount of time.
#7. Another former WWE NXT Tag Team Champion Tyler Breeze
Tyler Breeze is one of those WWE Superstars whose influence may have been bigger offscreen than it was onscreen. He's credited with helping many of the top stars in WWE today formulate their onscreen characters when they were in NXT.
Breeze, who runs his own highly rated wrestling school, was best known for his time in a tag team with fellow WWE release Fandango as both The Fashion Police and Breezango.
Breeze, whose Twitter handle currently is '#blessed' has not publicly reacted to his release, but several other wrestlers have reacted to the news of his release from the company.
Whilst it definitely does seem that Tyler Breeze will go on to be 'just fine' as Drama King Matt said in his tweet above, it is an absolute real shame that he has been released from WWE.
#6. Fairly new WWE signing August Grey
'Retro' Anthony Green seemed like a surefire hit for WWE when he was signed and renamed as August Grey, especially when sent straight to 205 Live where he could shine.
Green cut his teeth in various independent wrestling promotions but rose to prominence thanks to his time with Evolve before he was signed by WWE. His last match for Evolve was against WWE's Mansoor.
August Grey had only been with the company for less than a year, after signing for WWE in August 2020. He has made a handful of appearances for 205 Live but will be leaving before being able to accomplish anything else.
But if you want an example of the sense of humor and personality that WWE had in Grey, look no further than the above tweet which shows Grey poking a little fun at his WWE release, given that he's advertised as competing in the main event of 205 Live on the same day he received the bad news.
#5. WWE Superstars the Singh Brothers
The Singh Brothers will perhaps be best known for their time as Jinder Mahal's lackeys, which ultimately saw The Modern Day Maharaja crowned WWE World Champion and propelled all three Superstars into the main event of RAW and SmackDown.
The pair, whose real names are Gurvinder and Harvinder Sihra, have also enjoyed runs as both the Bollywood Boyz in 205 Live and as Samir and Sunil Singh on WWE's main roster. They've also both become WWE 24/7 Champions
There's a strong argument to be made that WWE never should have separated The Singh Brothers from Jinder Mahal during the 2019 Superstar Shakeup, because both Jinder Mahal's and their careers haven't really amounted to much since.
The pair took to Twitter to share their reaction to the news of their release, highlighting that the last five years in WWE, overcoming injuries, had all been worth it. Interestingly, they also note that they were fired whilst wrestling training.
#4. WWE NXT Superstar Marina Shafir
Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke were signed by WWE to round out the Four MMA Horsewomen alongside Shayna Baszler and, of course, Ronda Rousey. However, Rousey left WWE and Baszler moved to the main roster, leaving Shafir and Duke alone in NXT.
The plan at one point seemed to be to have the four former MMA stars take on WWE's Four Horsewomen in Bayley, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Charlotte, which was something that WWE even teased at one point.
That plan seemingly ended when WWE recently released Jessamyn Duke, and it seemed like only a matter of time before they would follow up on that move by releasing Shafir, which they've done so today.
Shafir is importantly Roderick Strong's wife, who has just been revealed as the leader of a major new stable in NXT, so it seems that WWE aren't making any real effort to keep couples together.
#3. Another recent WWE signee Curt Stallion
Curt Stallion was another of the former Evolve talents that WWE signed, like August Grey. And Like August Grey, he went straight to 205 Live to begin his WWE career there after being signed in August 2020.
And sadly, also like August Grey, he will be leaving the company before he has wrestled even a year for them.
Stallion is another talent that many people predicted would have decent success for WWE thanks to his infamous work rate that propelled him to big popularity on the independent circuit.
Stallion had last competed with WWE on the March 12th episode of 205 Live, teaming up with Mansoor to take on the Bollywood Boyz, who have also been released.
#2. Former SAnitY member and WWE Superstar Killian Dain
Killian Dain was also announced as leaving WWE today, leaving his real-life partner Nikki Cross as the last surviving member of the popular NXT and main roster stable SAnitY in the company.
Dain's most recent WWE run saw him teaming with Drake Maverick, who everyone will remember was also released by WWE before being brought back. The team of Maverick and Dain have been used sparingly in NXT and despite being great together, did not win any championship gold.
Before his NXT run, Killian Dain was the big guy in the stable SAnitY which featured Eric Young, who is now back in IMPACT wrestling, Alexander Wolfe who eventually joined NXT UK stable Imperium before being kicked out and released earlier this year.
Dain has had many great moments in WWE, the most notable probably being his involvement in the NXT ladder match to become the first ever North American Champion on the black and gold brand.
#1. Former WWE RAW Underground star Arturo Ruas
It seems that not even being out of action with a bicep injury can prevent WWE from releasing you if they want to as Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner Arturor Arturo Ruas has joined the list of released WWE Superstars today.
Ruas joined WWE in 2015 and looked to be getting his big break when the company debuted the RAW Underground segments on Monday Night RAW. Ruas made his main roster debut as part of those segments, defeating enhancement talent Mikey Spandex by knockout.
However, RAW Underground quickly disappeared into nothing and Ruas was quietly moved back to NXT where he picked up a bicep injury and has been out of action since.
It has been reported that WWE had some decent plans for Ruas in NXT before his injury put an end to them. Now those plans definitely won't come to fruition with the news of Ruas' release.
