There was some talk among talent last night at the SmackDown! tapings that management is apparently telling the workers that the roster cuts have been put on hold for at least a couple more months. As of last week, the word in Stamford was that up to five more wrestlers were planned to be released from the roster.
Part of the reason plans were put on hold, or changed altogether, is because some of the lesser-used talents have been considering or taking the steps to receive a release from their WWE contracts. Now that TNA has started the traditional PPV format (one big one a month at 30$ a pop as opposed to weekly $10 shows) and has gotten big exposure all week on FOX Sports Net, mixed in with their national weekly TV deal, many in WWE are hoping that TNA could become an alternate option, similar to when WCW was still around and alive.
It could be that WWE has changed their position and don’t want to become a feeder of talent to TNA in this big transitional phase of their company. With the Hogan’s, Savage’s, Nash’s, Hall’s, Piper’s, etc. any additional names recognized by the mass wrestling public (WWE fans) could be enough to kick-start TNA into a position the stature of the old WCW. It will be interesting to see how WWE handles any cases of talent requesting their release, as we have said before both pay and morale aren’t so high in WWE right now, so situations like this could arise quite a bit in the future.
