WWE’s latest developmental cuts may have ended more than just 10 contracts. For some of the wrestlers shown the door, their entire professional wrestling careers could already be over.
WWE released Jasper Troy, PJ Vasa, Wendy Choo, Adriana Rizzo, Zena Sterling, Braxton Cole, Anya Rune, Marcus Brown, Ellen Akesson and referee Gary Wilson as part of its latest round of developmental cuts. Now, Sean Ross Sapp says fans shouldn’t expect every one of those names to simply show up somewhere else.
The subject came up during Fightful Select’s September 8 Q&A when Sapp was asked which released WWE talents planned to continue wrestling and which ones might be finished. He said he didn’t have definitive answers for everyone.
“No, I don’t know of the ones who have confirmed either way.”
There are some names Sapp expects to keep going. He specifically pointed toward Anya Rune and Wendy Choo as wrestlers he believes will remain active after WWE.
“I know Erica Demia will because she’s Anya Rune. She’s wrestling over 100 times a year. I would imagine Wendy Choo does as well.”
The outlook gets much different when it comes to athletes WWE recruited without previous professional wrestling backgrounds. Sapp said many of the wrestlers who entered the Performance Center as raw recruits may simply walk away from the business now that WWE has decided to move on from them.
“A lot of the ones that started in the Performance Center and were recruited as non-wrestlers, a lot of those people we are never going to see wrestle again. Never ever.”
He didn’t stop there. Sapp said some of those former WWE recruits could still appear at conventions or autograph signings, but he believes plenty of them will never actually wrestle another match.
“They might do some signings or something like that. We will never see a lot of those people wrestle.”
That distinction matters with this particular round of cuts because WWE released talent from very different backgrounds. Wendy Choo had been inside WWE’s developmental system for more than seven years and was already an established wrestler before signing. Jasper Troy had become a recognizable NXT name, won WWE LFG and held the WWE Speed Championship. Adriana Rizzo had spent years developing as part of The D’Angelo Family and fought her way back from a serious knee injury.
Then there were names such as Marcus Brown and Ellen Akesson, who were recruited largely for their athletic backgrounds and had only recently entered WWE’s system. Brown came from bodybuilding and fitness, while Akesson brought a background in powerlifting and arm wrestling. Both were still learning professional wrestling when WWE ended their runs.
Braxton Cole and PJ Vasa also entered WWE after careers in other sports, while Anya Rune was only months removed from getting into WWE’s developmental pipeline. That means the fallout from these cuts could look very different from wrestler to wrestler. Someone like Choo already has years of experience and connections outside WWE. A recruit whose entire wrestling education happened inside the Performance Center may have a much harder decision to make about whether starting over on the independent scene is even worth it.
Sapp was not saying every released developmental wrestler is done. In fact, he specifically expects some of them to keep going. His point was that WWE’s Performance Center has increasingly recruited athletes who weren’t wrestlers before arriving, and once that WWE opportunity disappears, professional wrestling may disappear with it.
That makes this latest round of cuts even rougher. WWE didn’t just release veterans looking for their next promotion. Some of these prospects may have walked out of the Performance Center knowing they’ll never step inside a wrestling ring again.
Which of WWE’s recently released developmental talents do you think will continue wrestling and find success somewhere else? Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
