Tag: wwe release

The Undertaker was ‘genuinely moved’ by support for R-Truth after WWE release in 2025

Posted on by Rosanne Raphael

The Undertaker addressed the overwhelming reaction to R-Truth’s WWE release in 2025. 

During his appearance on Six Feet Under with The Undertaker, R-Truth’s WWE exit in 2025 was discussed. Truth revealed how his colleagues, production and camera crew had a united front backstage to speak up on his behalf, and how appreciative he is of their gesture. 

“Like, my peers at work, the ring crew, the camera crew, the crew in the truck, every part of that machine that makes it work spoke up, again, for me. We always ask, are we worthy? And it brings such joy it almost makes me wanna cry, because it’s like, to feel that kind of love is like, I want everybody to feel that at some point.”

The Undertaker stated that the backstage reaction to his release demonstrated the impact he had on the locker room, and had high praise for the wrestling veteran. 

“You know what that says? It says you did it right. Because in our industry, to have your colleagues put themselves out there where they could (be) in a position where they could be reprimanded. It could come back a little bit. That means you touched a lot of people’s lives.”

“And what you’ve done, you’ve done it the right way man. It was incredible. For an old salty guy like me who’s been around and seen so much, I was genuinely moved, to like ‘Dang, this guy has made an impression in people’s lives.’ And when you can do that with your colleagues and the people that surround us, our production, like you said the production crew. That just says a whole lot about the human being right there.”

“And if nothing else ever great happened in your career, having that, having your fan base go to bat for you, and your colleagues. Good on you brother, that’s awesome.”

R-Truth announced his WWE release on June 1, 2025 ending his 17 year run with the company. However, the fans clamored for his return which led to his comeback at Money in the Bank a week later. 

On the March 20 edition of SmackDown this year, Truth and Damian Priest defeated The MFTs to become the WWE Tag Team Champions. 

Sawyer Fulton announces his release from WWE

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Following the departures of Emma, Darren Young, and Summer Rae earlier this week, another wrestler has been released from their WWE contract.

NXT’s Sawyer Fulton posted a statement on Twitter today announcing that he’s no longer with the company. He wrote that he worked as hard as possible to come back after being injured in 2016, but it didn’t end up working out. He noted that he’s going to continue in pro wrestling and vowed to get back to WWE in the future.

Like with Emma, Young and Summer Rae, injury issues significantly hindered Fulton’s career. He suffered an arm injury towards the end of last year that kept him out of action for several months. Due to the injury, he was written out of the SAnitY stable as Killian Dain joined Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Nikki Cross in the group.

Fulton made his return in an angle at a house show in April and defeated Brennan Williams in his first match back in May but never returned to television.

Fulton, whose real name is Jacob Southwick and who was an amateur wrestler in college, signed with WWE in 2012 after starting his career in Mid-Ohio Wrestling. His full statement about his release is available to read below:

“Wow there [are] a lot of feelings going through my head right now. First off, thank you to everyone who has supported me the last 5 years. Coaches, brothers, fans, family, and an amazing woman named Abby. This has been an absolutely amazing time in WWE. After my injury I worked as hard as possible to come back, and it just happened to not work out.

However, I’m not ashamed of being released by any means, I held nothing back and at the end of the day I’m happy to leave with my head held high. I’m going to continue to work hard as possible and learn all I can in wrestling, nothing changes but the name.

The last thing I said to Canyon [Ceman] and Coach [Matt] Bloom was that I’m still young and I will be back in WWE and I fully intend to prove it. I want to be a great professional wrestler, that goal will never change, only the path that takes me there. Honestly I can not wait to start down this new path, and travel, and wrestle in front of new crowds.

WWE, NXT thank you for everything you have done for me, and we will see each other again soon. And for all my brothers in the back, I’m sure we will make another town together in the future. I love You all. See you soon!”

Austin Aries released by WWE

Posted on by Joseph Currier

News of one of the more surprising WWE releases in some time came today, with WWE announcing in the late afternoon that Austin Aries is no longer with the company.

WWE posted a statement on their website: “WWE has come to terms on the release of WWE Superstar Austin Aries. WWE wishes Aries the best in all of his future endeavors.”

Not long before the news of his release was announced, Aries tweeted: “It’s a beautiful day.” He followed up by posting three emojis (a banana, a smiling face with sunglasses, and a thumbs up) when the news came out. We can confirm that he asked to be released.

Aries had been scheduled to challenge for Neville’s Cruiserweight Championship at tonight’s house show at Madison Square Garden until recently. He was replaced by Cedric Alexander.

After his lengthy feud over the title with Neville ended, Aries’ last appearance on WWE TV came on the June 20th episode of 205 Live. He continued his partnership with Jack Gallagher, which was formed the week before when Aries claimed that he wasn’t medically cleared to compete due to neck and leg issues.

There was a situation before that where Aries seemed to indicate on an episode of Busted Open Radio that he was taking time off due to injuries, but he later denied that was the case when asked about it in an interview with USA Today.

WWE & Simon Gotch come to terms on his release

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Simon Gotch is gone from WWE.

News of his release was announced on WWE.com today, with it being noted that the company and Gotch mutually agreed to part ways. Their statement: “WWE has come to terms on a mutually agreed upon release with Simon Gotch as of today, April 5, 2017. WWE wishes Gotch the best in all his future endeavors.”

Gotch was last in action just last night before SmackDown. He teamed with Aiden English in a loss against American Alpha in a dark match before the show went on the air. He was also involved in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the WrestleMania 33 pre-show.

After being signed to a developmental contract in 2013, Gotch had his most notable success in the company as part of The Vaudevillains alongside English in NXT. They won the NXT tag titles from Blake & Murphy at TakeOver: Brooklyn in August 2015 before dropping them to The Revival at a TV taping a few months later.

Gotch and English were called up to the main roster after WrestleMania last year. They were briefly in the tag title picture before joining SmackDown in the WWE draft, where they were positioned on the lower end of the brand’s tag team division.

Jack Swagger released by WWE

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Jack Swagger is officially done with WWE.

After a couple of weeks where his status was up in the air, WWE announced on Monday afternoon that Swagger had been released by the company.

Their statement: “WWE has come to terms on the release of Jack Swagger as of today, March 13, 2017. WWE wishes Swagger the best in all his future endeavors”

Swagger initially appeared on the “Beyond the Fight” podcast with Chael Sonnen at the beginning of this month to reveal that he had requested to leave WWE. But the company clarified that Swagger had not yet been released when he started to take outside bookings, including a match against Alberto Del Rio for WAW in the United Kingdom.

When noting that Swagger hadn’t yet been granted his release then, WWE said that Swagger would have a 90-day non-compete clause once he officially left the company where he would get his downside guarantee and wouldn’t be able to wrestle for other promotions during that period.

Jack Swagger requests his release from WWE

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Jack Swagger has requested his release from WWE.

In an appearance on “Beyond the Fight” with Chael Sonnen on Wednesday, Swagger announced the news and said that his decision to leave the company was made because of a lack of opportunities in WWE and the sides being so far apart in contract negotiations.

“As of yesterday, Chael, I asked for my release from WWE,” Swagger said. “It’s still kind of an ongoing process right now. Basically, it came down to contract negotiations and we were way off. They didn’t value me at what I thought I was valued at. So, you can be angry about it because wrestling is something that you get so passionate about, but this was a business decision. They weren’t giving me the opportunity to make the full amount of income I could for my family, so when you put it like that it’s time to go.”

Swagger said that the start-and-stop nature of his booking was frustrating, but noted that it’s something that happens all of the time and that there are two people in a room in WWE who determine who the best wrestlers are even though the crowd may like others more.

When asked what his plans are going forward, Swagger noted that he’s young and is leaving because he wasn’t getting opportunities. He said that he intends to keep wrestling and wants to go to Mexico, the UK, and Japan, but it would be hard to turn down a good offer to try out mixed martial arts.

Prior to requesting his release, Swagger had been relegated to only making appearances on house shows. He switched brands and joined the SmackDown roster after being drafted to Raw in last July’s WWE draft, but hasn’t appeared on TV in months following a brief feud with Baron Corbin.

Swagger’s appearance on Sonnen’s podcast is available to listen to below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipRQKzeAtLc