Fightful has more details of Bray Wyatt's WWE release.
Fightful Select reported the following last weekend, shortly after Wyatt's release was announced:
Bray Wyatt was released by WWE in what he was told was a "budget cut" on July 31.
Fightful was told that Johnny Ace made the call, and also sent a notification out to shocked WWE talent moments before the news broke online that Wyatt had been released.
The notion of a budget cut immediately surprised those within WWE, as Wyatt is known as being a great merch seller whenever he's actually active. One source indicated that Wyatt was a money maker for the company when that's the case.
In the hour following the release, we're told that Wyatt's name was actually brought up during another recent round of cuts. There have been multiple wrestlers that were discussed, but ended up being held on to. We've seen Observer's report that Wyatt was slated for a return in August, and we can confirm tentative creative plans were in place for him.
Fightful has been told that the creative team had been relayed that Wyatt was getting protective of his character after what were seen as poor creative decisions and ideas thrown his way, though many members of the team didn't speak to Wyatt directly and weren't sure if it was hearsay.
Talent was told that Wyatt's release was a "budget cut," thought we don't know if that was specifically cited to Wyatt himself. This created a gigantic amount of frustration with the roster, staff, and employees alike, with nearly 20 reaching out to Fightful directly, saying there had to be more to it than that considering that he's a known money-maker.
A consensus was that almost nobody in the company truly believed this was a budget cut, citing Wyatt's popularity, merchandise sales among reasons. Wyatt was well known within the company to move merchandise when he was an active performer, and several other long-time stars said that they don't feel like their jobs are safe any longer, despite of their positions on the card or prior pushes.
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