Over the past few months and weeks, several WWE Superstars (Luke Harper, Mike Kanellis, Sin Cara, to name a few) have publicly requested to be released from their current contracts. According to many of these wrestlers, the general consensus is their unhappiness with the company. Many feel their talents are underused/overlooked, sporadically booked, little to no tv time and more so, when they’re told “Creative has nothing for you”. Thus setting up their desire to look for work elsewhere.WWE has, at the present, denied their requests. It is being reported the main reason is that management doesn’t want any of their current stars leaving and making money for other companies. Similar to what has transpired in recent months and year with Dean Ambrose, Neville, Ty Dillinger and even Goldust — who are now wrestling under upstart promotion All-Elite Wrestling (AEW) as Jon Moxley, PAC, Shawn Spears and Dustin Rhodes, respectively.The current notion, however, is that said policy might be on the verge of changing, according to Dave Meltzer via his latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter.“However, it was noted that they may be giving releases to some people with the idea they don’t believe they would be going to AEW, or if they do, wouldn’t help them, and it is possible he [Sin Cara] will get his release,” Meltzer wrote in reference to wrestler Sin Cara who was vocal and wrote a lengthy post on his social media account.Two other potential departures include two from the NXT roster: Oney Lorcan, who reportedly asked for his release in late October, and Jordan Myles, who posted an angry video on social media earlier this week claiming he had quit the company amidst controversy via perceived racism. Neither man has been granted their release as of this writing.Along with their policy, WWE has pretty much made sure to lock down their top wrestlers to new lucrative contracts over the past year. Stars like Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, The Miz, Paige, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, Shinsuke Nakamura, The Usos and even The Undertaker, have all reportedly signed new, multi-year contracts in order to stay with the company.Out of men listed above, Orton may have leveraged his contract renewal when he teased the possibility of jumping to AEW via social media account. Shortly after, Orton announced that he had re-signed to a multi-year contract following negotiations.In a recent Starrcast interview, AEW’s Cody and Brandi Rhodes said they didn’t mind if wrestlers use AEW’s mere existence as leverage in order to get a better contracts.“I encourage it honestly, because if they’re feeling any way where they’re starting to tip, people who do this they are all very talented people and they have big followings and stuff like that,” Brandi said. “Why not do something? Don’t do nothing. Do something to showcase, ‘Hey, this is how I’m feeling. There are these other options.’ I don’t mind that. Sometimes I know what they’re doing when they do that and I’ll give them that little bit back because it’s okay.”“We’re brothers and sisters as wrestlers,” Cody said. “We really are. It doesn’t matter what roof we’re under. And the the wrestling industry is, if you compare to other entertainment of comparable influence like popular tv, where they’re paid so much and they’re unionized and they have so much to protect them and safeguards. One of the most exciting things about AEW is we’ve been able to raise the entire pay floor for the entire industry. So if Randy wants to take a dumb photo on an elevator and tag people he doesn’t even know in it and they’re dumb enough to buy it and they pay him a certain amount, good for Randy Orton.”On the other side of the coin, when wrestlers are released or “future endeavored”, WWE is notorious for adding and enforcing their 90-Day No-Compete Clause, a stipulation added to their contract release that impedes talent to work, wrestle, appear on-air or un-televised and even do interviews for any wrestling event. This is mainly done to kill any momentum or leverage the talent may have going in as a hot commodity free agent, while at the same time keeping them out of work till the clause expires.We will keep monitoring this ordeal between WWE and affected superstars in the days and weeks to come ▪
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