Wednesday, April 17, 2019

As the WWE Roster Turns (And In Some Cases Doesn't)

Ambrose Out
Photo Credit: WWE.com
While WWE continues to be a vacuum cleaner of talent across the indies and other corporate promotions worldwide, it can be hard to imagine them releasing people like they used to even a couple of years ago on the fateful day that JTG picked up his phone. However, the company does have roster turnover outflow. It just happens less frequently, and unless it's the case of major fuck-ups like with Enzo Amore or Colin Cassady, it's initiated by the wrestler wanting to leave. So far in 2019, several wrestlers of note have left the company or are in the process. Many of them initiated it on their own accord, and two of them didn't. One of them, well, you shouldn't be surprised that he was cut because dude is an entirely gigantic dipshit. The other one was surprising but is the rare case where WWE might have been justified?

The first and most prominent departure was initiated while TWB was still on hiatus. Dean Ambrose decided he had enough of fighting over houseplants and putting on bobo Bane cosplay and turned in his notice in February. His final appearance with the company is this Sunday in an impromptu Network special called The Shield's Final Chapter, where he will team with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins one last time against opponents of unknown providence. Finn Bálor and his massive hog will be there too to defend the Intercontinental Championship. Unless Samoa Joe was mixed up in the border troubles that apparently plagued this week's episodes of RAW and Smackdown and is going to RAW, I expect Bálor to drop the strap so it stays on RAW and the US Title remains on Smackdown. But enough about him.

The rot in Ambrose's WWE career can be traced back to one seminal match — vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32. The build to the match included Mick Foley bequeathing him his ridiculously barb-wired bat and Terry Funk giving him his chainsaw. Lesnar took exactly zero hardcore bumps, and if my memory serves me right, he may have only taken one bump in total. It was a critical failure, and it set Ambrose on the path that led him to his final match on Sunday night. It didn't help that after the Shield broke up the first time that WWE decided to harness his manic energy in an entirely misfitting way. Yes, Ambrose always had a distinct Charlie Kelly from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia vibe to him, but the energies weren't really the same. He had room to be goofy at times, or at least eccentric, but WWE decided to make him into a complete buffoon, even up to the point where he was doing bad Bane cosplay during his last feud with Rollins.

No one has a real handle on where Ambrose will go. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a break from wrestling altogether, to be honest. He still gets residuals, and his spouse Renee Young still gets a WWE paycheck. I'm not sure he needs the money, and it'd remain to be seen if a company like All Elite Wrestling would give him fulfillment. Of course, I say this and he could be already booking hotels in the Philly area so he can work Tournament of Death. I think Jon Moxley vs. Martina the Session Moth would be a main event in any arena, even if it's just some field an hour south of Philly.

The next release, which I guess is still pending since he gave his notice just yesterday, I wanna talk about is that of Luke Harper. The once and probably future Brodie Lee posted this on Twitter:
If you haven't noticed Harper around, it's because he was sidelined with a wrist injury that shelved the Bludgeon Brothers' push early last year. Rowan also was injured around that time with a torn biceps muscle, but he found purpose as Daniel Bryan's eco-friendly horror-and-punk shirt-wearing muscle. When Harper was cleared for battle, it was just house shows and a "Worlds Collide" match against Donovan Dijakovic. For a guy pushing 40, waiting for another reboot is just not tenable. Of course he'd want out to try and mine on his name while his body still holds up. All Elite Wrestling probably would love to have him. Ring of Honor would if they valued good wrestlers anymore. Hell, maybe he could show up in New Japan in time for the G1 as a treasured foreigner. Who knows?

Of course, he may not be able to go anywhere else for awhile. WWE hasn't granted his release yet, and while his contract is up in November, you could never put it past the misers in contracting to freeze his contract for the time that he was injured. They did it to Rey Mysterio. Harper's Twitter message seems to indicate amicability, so maybe he'll get the quick cut. But with ruthless corporatists like the McMahons and Paul Levesque, you never fuckin' know.

Other wrestlers who requested their releases while TWB was on hiatus are Hideo Itami and Tye Dillinger. The former is a tragic case given that he was in line to get the push Bálor got back in 2015 in NXT and he got hurt. Then when he returned and gave Austin Aries a Go To Sleep at Takeover: Brooklyn II, he got hurt again. WWE decided to cut bait on pushing him as anything but talent-on-hand, and he eventually floated into the company's Valley of Lost Souls, Smol Division that is 205 Live. He was allowed an excursion to Pro Wrestling NOAH, where he made prominence, in September of last year to work Naomichi Marufuji's anniversary show, which may have awakened something in him? I have no idea. But again, I'd be frustrated if I were him too. He hasn't made much in the way of appearances yet, but he will be appearing at Game Changer Wrestling's Tournament of Survival in June. As for Dillinger, he's another one who had reason to want to get outta dodge. He was insanely over at house shows and whenever he appeared because of his easy to meme "TEN" gimmick. Go back to the first Royal Rumble he participated in and how insane the crowd went when he came out in the ten slot. He feels like he's bound for AEW though, so maybe they'll do him a little less dirty? I don't know if he's a main event gimmick, but appearing every week in comedic fashion is better than being at Kraft services by the time Smackdown goes live.

The dipshit I referred to in the first paragraph is TJP, whose tenure in WWE was severed in February. Unlike those above though, his was a firing, and according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, it was for disciplinary reasons. He didn't elaborate, but the rumor mill produced some possible reasons in that he hung around with the women on the roster more than the men, and if his MRA tweets give any insight into his attitudes towards women, he may have been a creeper. For WWE to fire you over your behavior towards women when the company itself is still surprisingly retrograde towards them means you kinda suck.

The other, surprising firing was that of road agent Arn Anderson. You didn't really hear much about Anderson in the company outside of the times they'd roll him out when he fit as Ric Flair adjacent, which for producers means you're not screwing up. Well, Anderson apparently screwed up when he allowed Alicia Fox to work drunk at a house show on February 10. Say what you want about WWE's attitudes towards substance abuse when you're a man vs. when you're a woman, but allowing someone to work while intoxicated is not exactly the wisest decision one could make. It's not really a firing to celebrate, but it still sucks. Additionally, it would be nice if WWE sent Fox on paid alcohol rehab since I'm sure the company schedule is playing a role in her self-medication here, but I'm not holding my breath.

Of course, one would figure out that the way WWE operates, if someone is leaving, it will be laid out in plain English, either by them or more likely, the party wanting to leave the company. It didn't stop, however, scoop-hungry morons looking to get the story FIRST that someone is leaving. Somehow, WWE's decision to split SANitY and place Eric Young on the RAW roster away from the other two male members gave rise to reports that both Killian Dane and Alexander Wolfe were leaving the company. People started reading into both of their tributes to their now-former stables and jumped to conclusions. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to see either guy outside of WWE; quite the contrary, I think they'd both kill it back on the indies or even in like AEW or even Impact. But if your job is to be a reporter, then fucking report, don't conjecture. Ryan Satin, TMZ alumnus with a brain you'd expect to be infected the way one who worked for such an outfit, jumped on Wolfe's farewell like he was asking for a release. What was even funnier is that while boasting his site has "fact checked news you can trust," he was only alerted that his official report might have been wrong when his commenters and Twitter followers called him out. I give up.