As reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, WWE has parted ways with several superstars within the past 24 hours. The list consists of ten superstars at the time of writing this.
Cedric Alexander
Cedric Alexander was the first to announce his departure from WWE, with Cedric taking to Twitter to state
“Thank you for the last 8 1/2 years! Being a professional wrestler has been a dream of mine since I could form memories and I will continue to do so till the good Lord says otherwise. #SeeYouIn90″
Cedric Alexander initially signed with the WWE in August of 2016 after a breakout performance in the Cruiserweight Classic. Cedric would be eliminated in the second round of the tournament after a fantastic match between himself and Kota Ibushi, which would cause the crowd to chant “Please Sign Cedric.” Triple H would come out onto the stage, pat Cedric on the back and say “Okay” to the crowd.
Cedric would then go on to be a key figure in 205 Live, with Cedric winning the Cruiserweight championship on April 8th, 2018 during the Wrestlemania 34 kick-off by defeating Mustafa Ali whilst John Cena watched on.
Cedric would eventually lose the title to Buddy Murphy after 180 days, and would then go on to become a 24/7 champion before eventually joining forces with MVP, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin of The Hurt Business. Shelton and Cedric would ultimately become Tag Team champions before the group would split on the March 29th, 2021 edition of Monday Night RAW. Despite a high demand from fans to see a reunion of The Hurt Business, the faction would ultimately never see a proper reunion before the release of Shelton Benjamin on September 21st, 2023. However, with speculation already abound that Cedric will head to AEW where Lashley, MVP, and Shelton all currently reside as The Hurt Syndicate, perhaps there’s still hope for a reunion.
Cedric Alexander was last seen on WWE television on the January 28th, 2025 edition of NXT where he would suffer defeat at the hands of “All Ego” Ethan Page before he would be saved from a post-match attack from Page by his protege Je’Von Evans.
As reported by Fightful, Cedric had just re-signed with the company in September 2024 to what was described as a “multi-year contract.”
AOP & Paul Ellering
The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) as well as their manager and Hall of Famer Paul Ellering were also released. The trio was a part of The Final Testament with Karrion Kross & Scarlett but had been missing from TV for a few weeks now. AOP’s last appearance being December 23rd, 2024’s edition of Monday Night RAW where The Final Testmanet would be attacked by The Wyatt Sicks.
The group made their return to WWE television on the January 5th, 2024 edition of Friday Night Smackdown, aligning themself with Kross but they saw little in-ring action, often just acting as Karrion Kross’ enforcers prior to their program with The Wyatt Sicks.
AOP was previously released in September of 2020, and Paul Ellering
Sonya Deville
Sonya Deville was informed that her contract would not be re-signed after this current one expires. She first appeared on WWE Tough Enough in 2015, where she would ultimately be eliminated. However, she would be announced as a new signing to NXT on October 28th of that same year. She would then proceed to have her debut match against Nia Jax at a live event where she would ultimately be defeated.
From that point on, Sonya would proceed to become a Women’s Tag Team champion and would briefly serve in a managerial role, acting as the “assistant” to general manager Adam Pearce where the duo would often find themselves at odds with each other as Sonya would make executive decisions completely on her own.
Sonya had participated in multiple teams, previously teaming up with the likes of Mandy Rose & Paige, Chelsea Green, and most recently Zoey Stark & Shayna Baszler to form the Pure Fusion Collective, which she would ultimately be the leader of.
Her final appearance on WWE television was at this year’s (2025) Royal Rumble event where she would enter the Women’s Royal Rumble match, uniting with Baszler & Stark in the match before the trio would ultimately be eliminated in sync by Bianca Belair, Naomi, Iyo Sky and Bayley.
Blair Davenport
Blair Davenport was another name reported to have been announced. Blair had previously wrestled all across the world, competing in various companies such as PROGRESS, Stardom, and AEW. She was first signed in 2021, where she would ultimately make her debut on the now-defunct NXT UK brand in July of the same year.
She would have a total of ten matches in NXT UK, including two championship matches against Meiko Satomura. Blair would then be sent across the pond to NXT 2.0 ahead of the 2022 Worlds Collide which would act as the (seemingly) final outing of NXT UK.
After that, Blair would be off TV for a short period of time until a masked attacker would begin to attack the women’s locker room of NXT. The attacker would be revealed to be Blair who would proceed to be featured prominently on NXT television, feuding with the likes of Roxanne Perez. Gigi Dolin and Sol Ruca.
Blair would then be called up in the 2024 WWE Draft where she would head to the Smackdown brand and briefly have a feud with Naomi, as well as a run-in with Bayley before forming a brief alliance with Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn.
Her last appearance would be on the November 11th, 2024 edition of Smackdown where she would fall short in the Women’s United States title tournament, being pinned by the now first Women’s United States champion Chelsea Green.
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
The team of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were revealed as the next ones released on February 8th of this year.
The duo were members of The O.C. with AJ Styles and “Michin” Mia Yim but had not been seen on WWE television since the September 20th, 2024 edition of NXT where they would fall short in a match against Hank & Tank.
The duo would first appear on WWE television in 2016, before being released in April 2020 after an appearance at Wrestlemania during a cinematic match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker known as the Boneyard Match. They would then return to the company in October of 2022, reuniting with AJ Styles to aid him in his feud with The Judgement Day.
Gallows & Anderson previously held the RAW Tag Team titles, and Luke Gallows had a long history with the company going all the way back to 2005 when he portrayed the imposter version of Kane. He would then debut in 2007 as Festus, before ultimately rebranding as Luke Gallows, joining forces with CM Punk and becoming a member of the Straight Edge Society.
Giovanni Vinci
Giovanni Vinci is a strange case. Vinci was previously a member of the group IMPERIUM, teaming up with Ludwig Kaiser under the command of GUNTHER before he was ultimately kicked out of the group after an attack from Ludwig Kaiser.
After that, he would strangely be absent from WWE television until a series of vignettes would be played for him starting on August 9th, 2024 promising his return that would ultimately come in the form of a match against Apollo Crews on September 6th of that year. The match would last (from my count) a total of six seconds, with Apollo Crews picking up the victory via roll-up. The two would proceed to have a rematch on September 20th that would be far more competitive, however, Apollo Crews would once again pick up the roll-up victory.
That would prove to be Giovanni Vinci’s final television appearance prior to his release, and many fans on social media are still left with questions as to why Vinci had such a rough time on the main roster.
He first debuted with the company back in 2016 during the Cruiserweight Classic under the ring name of Fabian Aichner and would ultimately become NXT tag team champion alongside Ludwig Kaiser.
Isla Dawn
Isla Dawn is the next one on the list to have been released from the WWE this month. She had previously been teaming with Alba Fyre in a group known as “The Unholy Union.” The duo would form after a lengthy feud between them in NXT before they would go on to become NXT Women’s Tag Team champions before they would ultimately lose the titles to Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler, with the NXT titles then unifying with the main roster’s Women’s Tag Team titles.
The team would then go on to regain championship glory with Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre on June 15th, 2024 at the Clash at the Castle event in Scotland, with the group prevailing in a triple threat match against Zoey Starks & Shayna Baszler and the at the time champions Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair.
She first debuted with the company in June of 2018 under the NXT UK brand.
Isla Dawn would take to Instagram to post a photo to reveal her release, stating…
“Here for a good time, not a long time. See you in 90.”
Elektra Lopez
It is currently being reported by PWInsider that Elektra Lopez was released on Friday, seemingly after her appearance in a backstage segment between Los Garzas and Motor City Machine Guns. This appears to be backed up by WWE’s website as she can now be found under the WWE Alumni section.
Elektra Lopez officially made her debut in WWE on the June 22nd, 2021 edition of NXT where she would come up short against Franky Monet (AKA Taya Valkyrie). She would eventually join up with Legado Del Fantasma, aligning herself with Santos Escobar’s group before eventually finding herself alone in NXT after Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro reunited with Escobar on the main roster with Zelina Vega acting as their manager on the October 7th, 2022 edition of Smackdown.
Elektra would then reunite with Escobar on the January 26th, 2024 edition of Smackdown where she would attack Zelina Vega, allowing Escobar to pick up a victory over a distracted Carlito.
February 10th, 2025 UPDATE: Elektra Lopez has confirmed she was released, taking to Twitter stating…
“Heard any good news lately? No? Well, make it quick—I’ve got a packed schedule for the next 90 days”