The List Of Fired WWE Stars Keeps Getting Longer

It’s almost become a sort of dark tradition for WWE to release members of its roster a few times a year. Two waves have already come in 2025, and the list seems particularly long this time.

#Wrestlers #Fired #WWE

Braun Strowman | 0:00
Dakota Kai | 1:59
Shayna Baszler | 3:15
Katana Chance & Kayden Carter | 4:39
Cora Jade | 5:54
Eddy Thorpe | 7:27
Shotzi | 8:18
Gigi Dolin | 9:17
Jakara Jackson and Oro Mensah | 10:00
Gallus | 11:37
Dani Palmer | 12:39
Javier Bernal & Riley Osborne | 13:44
Sonya Deville | 14:50
Blair Davenport | 16:50
Cedric Alexander | 18:00
Giovanni Vinci | 19:13
Isla Dawn | 20:45
Duke Hudson | 21:58
Elektra Lopez | 23:20
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson | 24:20
Akam, Rezar, and Paul Ellering | 25:42

Read Full Article: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1850656/every-wwe-star-departure-in-2025/

It’s almost become a sort of dark tradition for WWE to release members of its roster a few times a year. Two waves have already come in 2025, and the list seems particularly long this time. Not even two weeks after WrestleMania 41 on May 2nd, WWE cut 17 wrestlers from its main and NXT rosters. With the biggest name and biggest person being Braun Strowman, a former Universal, Intercontinental, and Tag Team Champion, Strowman first signed with WWE in 2013. He debuted on the main roster in 2015 as part of the Wyatt family, then enjoyed a breakout singles run starting in 2016, feuding with Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. Strowman captured his first and only Universal Championship in 2020. This is the second time Strowman’s been dropped from WWE. He was initially released in June 2021, just days after unsuccessfully challenging for the WWE Championship. I feel like a lot of people were surprised when you got let go. What was your reaction when you found out? It sucked. He had a handful of indie appearances during that hiatus from WWE, joining EC3’s Doomed Control Your Narrative promotion and appearing at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle. Strowman made his return to WWE in September 2022 as part of a wave of returns as Triple H took full creative control. Strowman tried to add another Intercontinental title reign to his resume, unsuccessfully challenging Gunther in January 2023. He then formed a tag team with Ricochet to contend unsuccessfully for the tag titles. Their run together halted as Strowman went on hiatus to undergo neck surgery. By the time he returned, Ricochet was gone, so he feuded with Bronson Reed, leading to a last monster standing match in September 2024. Strowman sustained a groin injury, returning in December and feuding with Jacob Fatu in the months leading up to Wrestlemania 41. Dakota Kai is another star who saw her second run with WWE come to an end on May 2nd. After a long stint on the indies under the name Eevee, she signed with WWE in 2016 and participated in the first May Young Classic the following year. She then went on to a very fruitful run in NXT. She and Raquel Rodriguez were the first ever NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions and won the titles a second time as well. Kai’s WWE contract wasn’t renewed in April 2022. She indicated in interviews that it was her own choice. Yet, she returned four months later at SummerSlam as part of the Damage Control Faction alongside Bailey and Eio Sky. Kai and Sky had two reigns as the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, but knee injuries held up Kai’s forward momentum. A torn ACL in May 2023 kept her on the shelf until the following February and then a meniscus injury in May 2024 kept her out of action until that November. Kai came close to winning her first singles title in January 2025. She got to the finals of the women’s intercontinental championship tournament, but lost to Lyra Valkyia. She also lost a rematch the following week. Her final matches with WWE came on Main Event and Raw in March. After a pretty full career as a mixed martial artist, Shaina Basler made the jump to pro wrestling. Spending a couple years on the indie circuit before debuting in WWE like Kai in the 2017 May Young Classic tournament. Basler reached the finals, losing to Kyrie Zayn. Basler went on to be a twotime NXT Women’s Champion before being called up to the main roster in February 2020. She won that year’s women’s elimination chamber match, earning the right to challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania 36. Basler came up short and had proved to be the closest she’d ever come to winning singles gold on the main roster. Basler did become a women’s tag team champion three times though. Twice with Nia Jax and once with her old MMA pal Ronda Rousey. Arguably Basler’s biggest WWE singles win came after the breakup of the latter team. She defeated Rousey at SummerSlam 2023 in an MMA rules match. Ronda, we’re I’m going to give you the fight you deserve one day. Basler almost immediately went back to a team though, joining up with Zoe Stark. They added Sonia Deville to become Pure Fusion Collective. Basler last wrestled in WWE alongside Stark on Smackdown in April in a gauntlet match for an opportunity at the women’s tag titles at Wrestlemania 41. They lost. Basler also made several interpromotional appearances at GCW’s Blood Sport. Two more women who largely made their mark in tag team wrestling found themselves among those cut on May 2nd. Kaden Carter and Katana Chance, who had runs as both the NXT and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Like several others in the releases, Chance also got her TV start in WWE in the May Young Classic in 2018. Initially wrestling there and in NXT under her real name, Casey Kenzaro, she made her surprise main roster debut as an entrant in the 2019 Women’s Royal Rumble, but by that September announced her retirement from wrestling due to an ongoing back injury. Thankfully, she was healthy enough to return in 2020. Carter signed to WWE in July 2018, also participating in that year’s May Young Classic. She struggled a bit in NXT before teaming with the returning Chance in 2020. The duo won the NXT women’s tag titles in August 2022, setting a record with a 186 day reign. They were called up to the main roster in the 2023 WWE draft and by the end of that year had defeated Piper Nan and Chelsea Green to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. That reign only lasted 39 days. The team’s last WWE match was the affforementioned women’s tag team gauntlet match on Smackdown in April. Before landing in NXT in early 2021, Cora Jade spent a few years on the indies and made a few appearances in AEW as an enhancement talent under the name Elena Black. Seems like we’ll perhaps be hearing that name again soon given her May 2nd release. After spending some time finding her footing on 205 Live and in the women’s Dusty Roads Classic, Jade became a focal point of the revamped NXT 2.0. By the end of the year, she was not only in the Women’s War Games match, but got the win by pinning NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose that got Jade a shot at the title at New Year’s Evil, a losing effort. Jade’s only championship in the company was an NXT Women’s Tag Team Title run with Roxan Perez in July 2022. It ended almost as soon as it began. Jade turned heel on Perez to cost her the NXT women’s title. Jade tore her ACL in January 2024, keeping her on the sidelines for 9 months. I had no choice in the matter. And like I said, I kind of just was looking at it as like everything happens for a reason. When she returned, Jade helped Perez retain her NXT women’s title, realigning with her former partner. However, in February 2025, she turned on Perez once more after hearing she would not be challenging for the title at Vengeance Day. She was eventually added to the match but didn’t win. Jade last wrestled at Stand and Deliver once again alongside Perez for an opportunity at the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. This time, Perez turned on Jade, walking out on her partner midway through the match. Some fans were shocked to see Eddie Thorp’s name among the May 2nd releases given how involved he’d been in NXT television over the previous few months. Thorp wrestled under his real name Carl Frederick’s in New Japan Pro Wrestling for 7 years before signing with WWE in January 2023. He debuted on NXT that March and quickly started racking up wins. He definitively came out on top in a lengthy feud with Djack. In late 2024, Thorp weasled his way into an NXT championship match against Trick Williams, which ended in a double pin, resulting in Williams retaining his title. Thorp stayed in the title picture for a few months, losing to new champ Obami in January 2025. Thorp’s last match in NXT came on April 15th, a loss in a four-way match for the number one contendership for the NXT North American Championship. Shotsi’s WWE journey was a long and pretty disappointing one. She got selected for the 2015 WWE Tough Enough competition, but had to drop out because a previously undiagnosed irregular heartbeat led to her failing her medical exam. She made a name for herself on the indie circuit, making her way back to NXT in 2019. Her biggest achievement there was winning the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships for 55 days in 2021 alongside Ember Moon, now known as Athena, in Ring of Honor and AEW. WWE tried lots of different approaches to package shotsy. She hosted Halloween Havoc in 2020 and memorably entered on a small tank for a while, but nothing really stuck. After a few years on the main roster, she returned to NXT in 2024. Her last TV appearance came accompanying Gigi Dolan and Tatum Paxley for a fatal four-way tag match at Stand and Deliver on April 19th. On May 2nd, WWE informed Shotsy that they weren’t renewing her contract. After a successful run in the indies in a 2018 May Young Classic appearance under the name Priscilla Kelly, Gigi Dolan came to NXT and got her new name in January 2021. She too mostly spent her time there in tag teams. Are we noticing a pattern here in the releases for May 2nd? Dolan was Cora Jade’s teammate for the 2021 Dusty Roads Classic, but by July, she was aligned with Mandy Rose and JC Jane in the group Toxic Attraction. Together with Jane, she became a two-time NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion. After breaking up with Jane last year, Dolan had been recently teaming with Tatum Paxley and Shotsy, most recently challenging alongside Paxley for the TNA women’s tag titles at that promotion’s 2025 Rebellion event. Yet another women’s tag team specialist, Jakara Jackson, was also among the NXT releases on May 2nd. She had just been featured during that week’s episode, though that segment led to some speculation about her future. Not only did it break up metaphor as a faction, but also her tag team alongside Lash Legend, the Metag Girls. Jackson debuted in 2022 after signing with WWE in 2021, teaming with Legend from the start of her run in NXT until they aligned with Noam Dar and Oro Mensah in 2023 to form Metaphor. Though the Meta Girls mostly competed in NXT, they did unsuccessfully challenge Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill on Smackdown for the main roster women’s tag titles in October 2024. Belair and Naomi came to NXT to give them another chance in January 2025. Another loss. The Meta Girls final match as a team came in a four-way for the TNA Women’s Tag Team Championship at Rebellion. It seems like she had her sight set on some major goals that maybe she’ll achieve elsewhere. Main Eventing on a bigger stage is a goal for 2025. Another Metaphor member, Mensah, was also released, ending his six-year run with the company. He debuted on the NXT UK brand in 2019 and in 2022 teamed with Ashton Smith to win the NXT UK Tag Team Championship. They were forced to vacate the titles when Smith sustained an injury. Mensaw would turn heel to join Metaphor alongside Jackson and Legend after NXT UK was merged with NXT in 2022. It seems like the remaining two members of the group, Legend and Dar, are safe for now. After debuting in NXT UK separately, Mark and Joe Coffee teamed with Wolf Gang in early 2019 to form the Gallas faction. That October, Mark and Wolf Gang won the NXT UK tag team championship, reigning for 497 days. During that reign, Joe Coffee was accused of sexual harassment, prompting his suspension in June, but he would eventually return. Mark Coffee captured the Heritage Cup in 2022, becoming the only member of Gallas to win a singles title. He only held it for two weeks. The group made their way across the pond at NXT Heatwave 2022, initially feuding with Diamond Mine before once again entering the hunt for gold at the start of 2023. Mark Coffee and Wolf Gang won the NXT Tag Team Championship at Vengeance Day 2023, reigning for 176 days. Since losing the titles, they had continued to pursue gold. most recently losing a challenge against Fraxium in December 2024. The group had spent much of 2025 working in Evolve before being released on May 2nd. Danny Palmer confirmed on Instagram that her May 2nd release from WWE was also the end of her time in the ring, writing that she was officially closing out her athletic career after 3 years with the company. Palmer signed with WWE after Wrestlemania week tryyouts in 2022. She debuted in a loss against Thea Hail on NXT Level Up in November and later in NXT at New Year’s Evil 2023 as part of a 20woman battle royal. Palmer entered the NXT Women’s Breakout tournament in the latter half of that year, coming up short in the first round against Lola Vice. She spent the months after working sporadic appearances across TV and live shows. Her last match came in February in Evolve, a loss to Cali Armstrong. In her post, Palmer thanked WWE for introducing her to boyfriend Tank Ledger, one half of the NXT Tag Team Champions. She added that she was looking forward to her next chapter. Palmer had worked as a fitness instructor prior to her WWE career, having previously been a three-time national champion in acrobatics and tumbling at Baylor University. Javier Bernal’s May 2nd release ended his three-year run in WWE. Since debuting on 205 Live in 2022, Bernal largely worked as an enhancement talent, racking up losses on NXT, Level Up, Main Event, NXT, and Smackdown. He made his interpromotional debut working in Booker T’s reality of wrestling in April 2024 in a match against Ro Champion Mattie Ice that ended in disqualification. Bernal’s last broadcast match was a February loss to Riley Osborne in Evolve. Osborne was also among those released. He first appeared in NXT UK in 2018 and only showed up sporadically until making his full debut on NXT Level Up in 2023. He wrestled on Main Event before reaching the finals of the 2023 NXT Breakout tournament, ultimately losing to Oba Femi. Osborne also joined Chaseu as a student. Osborne appeared in TNA to qualify for the Ultimate X match for the X- Division title at Emergence in August 2024, but Zachary Wentz won the title. Chase disbanded and Osborne’s last appearance with WWE came with his evolved victory over Bernal. In her nearly 10 years in WWE, Sonia Deville has played a lot of roles and broken one major barrier given that she was the first openly gay woman to be a WWE superstar. She was reportedly informed that her contract with the company will not be renewed. And it’s unclear right now when that contract actually expires. Deville got her start in WWE on the 2015 season of the reality training show Tough Enough. Though she was the third competitor eliminated that season, she was good enough to score a WWE contract that October and started working NXT house shows under her real name, Daria Baronado. Her first televised NXT appearance came on the July 13th, 2016 episode where she, Alexa Bliss, and Mandy Rose lost a sixwoman tag team match to Carmela, Liv Morgan, and Nikki Cross. Her name changed to Sonia Deville in April 2017. And she stayed in NXT until December 2017 when she made her way to the main roster and joined the team Absolution alongside Rose and Paige. Absolution feuded with Bailey, Mickey James, and Sasha Banks heading into 2018. But Paige’s retirement from WWE led to the group disbanding that April. Rose and Deville continued to work together as Fire and Desire. As they often do, that team broke up and the two had a no disqualification loser leaves WWE match at SummerSlam 2020 with Rose emerging the victor. Deville briefly went on hiatus to deal with some real life legal problems involving a stalker and attempted kidnapping. She returned in a non-wrestling role as the general manager of Smackdown in 2021. Deville re-entered in ring competition in 2022 and eventually claimed the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships alongside Chelsea Green in 2023. Unfortunately, an ACL injury in August of that year forced Deville to vacate her title. Upon her return, Deville founded Pure Fusion Collective alongside Shaina Basler and Zoe Stark. Deville most recently competed in the 2025 Women’s Royal Rumble. It’s unclear whether she will make any future appearances, but it seems like more wrestling is definitely in her future. What’s the toughest part? Ooh, the travel. Yeah. Yeah, cuz I love wrestling and I love the physicality and I love everything about it pretty much. After runs in Stardom, AEW, Revolution Pro Wrestling, and elsewhere as B Priestley, Blair Davenport came to WWE in NXT UK in 2021, introducing herself with a four match winning streak. She established herself as a force to be reckoned with in NXT UK, eventually making her way to NXT when the two brands merged in 2022. She snagged a wildcard spot in a title unification match at NXT Worlds Collide between NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose and NXT UK Women’s Champion Mako Satamora. Rose emerged victorious, but it was the start of a strong run in NXT for the next year plus. Davenport was called up to the main roster in 2024, locking up with Naomi and Auntie Hartwell in a Money in the Bank triple threat qualifying match. She lost to Naomi and joined forces with Alba Fire and Isla Dawn of the Unholy Union to feud with Naomi, Jade Cargill, and Bianca Belair. After a loss to that trio, Davenport attempted to stake her claim on the WWE Speed Women’s Championship, only to once again be bested by Naomi. Davenport’s last televised WWE match was on the November 22nd, 2024 episode of Smackdown, where she lost in the first round of the WWE Women’s United States Championship tournament to eventual winner Chelsea Green. Another longtime WWE roster member who bounced around the card quite a bit, Cedric Alexander has closed the book on his 8-year career with the company. He first broke out as part of the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament, which saw fans publicly demand he be signed following a standout second round match with Kota Ibushi. Alexander was seen thereafter on 205 Live and was often in number one contendership matches for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Yet, he never pushed for the title before 2018 when he fought his way through a tournament for the vacant belt. Alexander finally won the title in the tournament finals on the Wrestlemania 34 kickoff show and held it for 181 days. After Alexander dropped the title to Buddy Murphy at Super Showdown 2018, he began to perform on the main roster full-time. His biggest claim to fame there ended up being two 247 title wins in 2019 and 2020, both of which lasted less than a day. He also briefly joined the Hurt Business, winning the Raw Tag Team Championships with Shelton Benjamin in December 2020. They held the titles for 85 days, losing them to the New Day in March 2021. Just prior to his release, Alexander began appearing in NXT, where he allied himself with Javon Evans. Alexander’s last match saw him fall to Ethan Paige on January 28th, 2025. I need to succeed. I need this in my life. After a long and winding 7 years with WWE, Giovani Vinci’s run with the company has come to an end. Vinci debuted under the name Fabian Iikner on NXT in September 2017. He stayed there in fairly under the radar capacity until May 2019 when he made his way to NXT UK to join forces with Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser in the Imperium faction. Vinci returned along with Imperium to NXT in 2020. He and Kaiser won the NXT tag team titles from Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher that May, holding them for 105 days. They lost their championships in August 2020 to Breezongo, but won them back at Halloween Havoc 2021 in a lumberjack lantern match against MSK. In their second run, Vinci and Kaiser held the titles for 158 days before dropping them back to MSK at Stand and Deliver 2022. Gunther and Kaiser were called up to the main roster in spring 2022. Vinci was not. That’s when he took on his new name in NXT, reimagining himself as a wealthy European Bon Vivant. This didn’t last long, however. Vinci was called up and reunited with Imperium in September 2022. He and Kaiser reunited as a tag team, but Vinci kept his new name. It is such a such a pleasure to not having to um play an act or like you know be that character that you’re actually not. In April 2024, Kaiser turned on Vinci, who was exiled from Imperium and WWE programming. Vinci did make an attempt at a return to a short-lived NXT gimmick, but that only led to a couple quick losses on Smackdown. Vinci’s last broadcast match saw him eliminated in the first round of the WWE Speed Championship number one contender tournament by Sheamus. Isla Dawn is yet another NXT UK alum among the recent WWE releases. She technically made her WWE debut under the name Stacy Coats in November 2017 when she lost a squash match to Asuka on Raw, but she first showed up as Isla Dawn on NXT UK in June 2018. After NXT UK was dissolved in 2022, Don went to the Statesside NXT, winning her first match there against Thea Hail that December. Don started teaming with Alba Fire in 2023 and the two claimed the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships at Stand and Deliver that April. They lost the titles in a unification match against then WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships Ronda Rousey and Shainana Basler two months later, but the pair continued to operate as a tag team on the main roster. Calling themselves the unholy union, Dawn and Fire shocked the world when they claimed the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships in a triple threat against Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, Basler, and Zoe Stark at Clash of the Castle in 2024. The pair held on to the titles for an impressive 77 days before dropping them back to Belair and Cargill at Bash in Berlin. The Unholy Union continued to operate as a team, at least until Dawn’s release. Her last broadcast match was a loss to Shotsi in the WWE Speed Women’s Championship number one contendership tournament semi-finals. Duke Hudson’s release came as a shock to many familiar with NXT given his massive popularity during his tenure with the Chaseu faction. Hudson was in WWE for 6 years. Hudson started his WWE career in 2019 under his real name Brendan After appearing exclusively at NXT house shows, he made his first televised appearance on the March 3rd, 2020 episode of Raw, where he and teammate Shane Thorne were defeated by the Street Profits, Hudson continued to make main roster appearances as an enhancement talent under his real name throughout 2020. He began performing under the name Duke Hudson during the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament, where he made it to the second round before losing to Carmelo Hayes. Hudson’s career remained quiet until he became embroiled in a feud against Cameron Grimes. Hudson ultimately lost that feud after losing both a hair versus hair match and a no holds barred match. Hudson continued to float around NXT until November 2022 when he was integrated into Chase U as the faction’s flag bearer alongside cheerleader Thea Hail and Andre Chase. Hudson and Chase won the NXT Tag Team Championships in October 2023, but they only held those titles for 21 days. Hudson’s last televised match was on the October 9th 2024 episode of NXT where he lost to Ridge Holland. Chase was disbanded shortly after. Hudson released a cryptic video in which he attempts to work through his WWE departure. How do you feel about wasting six years of your life in that building? I would I wouldn’t say it was a waste. Ah, come on. After runs in Ring of Honor and TNA, Electra Lopez made her way to NXT in June 2021, debuting in a loss to Frankie Monaet. What followed was an up and down run in NXT where she logged some wins, but also plenty of losses and never got the chance to compete for the NXT Women’s Championship. Lopez had an odd history with the stable Legato del Fantasma. She joined the group in 2022 when it was made up of Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, and Waqin Wild. Toward the end of the year, the stable was called up to the main roster, but the three men were accompanied not by Lopez, but by Zelina Vega. Lopez, meanwhile, remained in NXT, forming a team with Lola Vice. After lots of twists and turns involving Legato, Delphantasma, and the LWO, Lopez was finally called up to the main roster and rejoined the group in January 2024. Though she did notch a win against Vega in April of that year, she rarely got to showcase her talents in the ring after that. Her last TV match was a loss to Tiffany Stratton in the first round of the WWE Women’s United States Championship tournament. Yes, Luke Gallows and Carl Anderson have been released by WWE again. Gallows previously had a run in the company as Fesus and a member of the Straightedge Society ending in 2010, but he and Anderson debuted as a duo in the company in 2016, joining up alongside AJ Styles as the club, an attempt to recreate their Bullet Club faction from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Gallows and Anderson’s first WWE run saw them feud with the New Day as well as Cesaro and Sheamus. They won the Raw tag team titles from the ladder duo at the 2017 Royal Rumble kickoff show and held the championships for 63 days, dropping them to the Hardy Boys at Wrestlemania 33 in a four-way ladder match. In 2019, Gallows, Anderson, and Styles rebranded their group as the OC or original club, and the team known as the Good Brothers outside WWE won the Raw tag titles again in a triple threat with the Revival and the Usos. Gallows and Anderson dropped the titles just 21 days later to Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins, kicking off a string of losses that led to the duo’s eventual release in 2020, while Styles stuck around. The Good Brothers made a return to their old stomping grounds in TNA, winning three Impact Tag Team Championships and appeared on AEW television a few times as well. They returned to WWE in 2022, reuniting with Styles and adding Mia Yim to reform the OC. Most recently, Gallows and Anderson had been making occasional appearances on NXT, and their last televised match saw them take a loss to Hank and Tank on September 24th. The Authors of Pain are another tag team that have seen something of a revolving door in WWE with their 2025 release being their second from the company. Their manager, Paul Ellering, went with them, too. After initially debuting under their real names in 2015, they became Akum and Razar, the authors of Pain in NXT in 2016. joined by industry veteran Eller Ring as their manager. They’d go on to win the Dusty Roads Tag Team Classic that year and defeat DIY for the NXT Tag Team Championships at Takeover San Antonio in 2017. They held those titles for a whopping 203 days, finally losing them to Sanity at NXT Takeover Brooklyn 3. AOP made their main roster debut on the April 9th, 2018 episode of Raw. They scored the Raw Tag Team Championships after defeating Seth Rollins in a twoon-one handicap match in November 2018. They only held those titles for 35 days, after which they floated around the main roster before being released in 2020. The team returned in January 2024 to aid Carer and Cross in his misadventures against Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits. The faction of AOP, Cross, and Scarlet became known as the Final Testament. AOP’s last WWE match was on the January 2nd, 2025 episode of Main Event where they defeated Cruz Del Toro and Waqen Wild of the LWO.