On Friday the WWE announced their usual post Wrestlemania talent releases. Generally, every year around this time they do big purge of the roster to try to balance things for the upcoming year. This year’s round is no different. Fans usually have their feelings about the wrestlers who are gone and tend to complain about who was let go.
The six performers who were released were Alex Riley, Damien Sandow, Cameron, Wade Barrett, Santino Marella, El Torito, Hornswoggle and Zeb Colter. Now the I don’t consider Wade Barrett a release since it was reported months ago that he was not resigning a new deal. The other talents haven’t really been on television lately.
Almost every year I could give one or two names of guys where I feel like it was a big mistake but not on this list. Cameron was more identified with the old divas division. She was one of the first stars of the Total Divas reality show and was not really known for her in ring ability. The landscape of women’s wrestling has changed in the WWE and it did not have room for someone who couldn’t carry their weight in the squared circle.
The other talents also have easily explained separations. El Torito and Hornswoggle both faded out as the company had not further interest in using little people. I guess this is not something the WWE is interested in exploring anymore. Alex Riley never appeared to bounce back from injury and Santino cannot wrestle anymore.
Now Zeb Colter, Wade Barrett and Damien Sandow all fall into a different category. The wasted opportunity group. Barrett’s entire tenure with the WWE is a series of missteps where they had a chance to make him a big star and made the wrong booking decision. Since making him the leader of Nexus but never giving him or the group real legs it seems like he booking was always sent to make him look bad in the end.
Sandow is the only Money In The Bank winner other than John Cena to fail to cash in the briefcase successfully. From there he never recovered and never was put back in the main event spotlight. No matter how over the Mizdow gimmick was when it was time to beat the Miz and move on the WWE did the opposite and made him lose to Miz of all people and never pushed him again. Gifted on the mic and a solid ring hand you may see Sandow creep back up through NXT in the future.
Zeb Colter hasn’t been on TV in a while but in a business that lacks managers there has to be spot for old Zeb. Realistically any wrestling company would be better with Dutch Mantell a part of team in some capacity. Hopefully these talents will land on their feet and still find ways to help the wrestling business.
Written By
Keith B. Holt
Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr
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