WWE Releases Three Talents

[FunKay]

We had heard about Hideo Itami and Tye Dillinger requesting their release from the company, supposedly frustrated with their lot in the company. Now they are free to pursue other avenues (after serving their non-compete clauses I suppose). Joining them is a less heralded departure in the form of the first holder of the current Cruiserweight Championship, TJP(erkins), though even he was rumoured to be wanting out fairly recently. This could well be the first of many waves of releases as talents seek opportunities elsewhere and WWE cleans out a bloated talent roster. We do know that Dean Ambrose is leaving at the end of his contract (sometime circa WrestleMania) for example. It also even goes beyond the active roster with Arn Anderson believed to have left the company too after an influx of new producers backstage in the form of Chris "Abyss" Parks, Shane "Hurricane" Helms et al...

Any thoughts on where these released talents head and what you'd like to see from them going forward?

[Jack-Hammer]

I've little doubt Tye Dillinger will at least try his lot with AEW. He and Cody Rhodes are close friends so I can easily see him landing a gig there, though I don't expect him to be a big level player. I think he'll rise higher than he did in WWE but, then again, that's not saying too much.

Hideo Itami is a case of rotten luck in his case. A shoulder injury that happened sometime in the 2nd half of 2016, and complications afterward, kept him on the shelf and didn't make his return until very late June of 2016. Then, in October of the same year, a botched powerslam via Riddick Moss caused a neck injury and he didn't wrestle again until about the middle of April 2017. So really for fairly close to 2 years time, Itami was sidelined with injuries, the show went on, we saw the arrival and/or rise of talent like Nakamura, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Bobby Roode and various others in NXT. He never came remotely close to regaining the momentum he had before he was taken out due to his original shoulder issues. When nothing came about of his time in 205 Live after his first 6 months as part of the Cruiserweight Division, namely not winning the title or really even being a significant contender at any point, I pretty much knew that he'd gone as far as he was going in WWE and I'm surprised he waited this long. He might try his luck in AEW, maybe Impact or ROH, but I think he might head back to Japan.

As for TJP, this was a bit of a surprise as he's the first main roster talent to be out and out released by the company in some time. He didn't ask for his release and said in an interview earlier this week that he was focused on WWE and, when asked, said he had no interest in going to AEW but now, who knows?

WWE's roster is severely bloated and I think there's a number of talent on the main roster who could be let go without Vince having to fear about them becoming the next big thing elsewhere:

Raw
The Ascension
The B-Team
Fandango
Rhyno
Curt Hawkins
No Way Jose
Jinder Mahal
The Singh Brothers
Alicia Fox
Tamina

SmackDown
The Colons
R-Truth
Shelton Benjamin
Rusev
Lana
The IIconics

I've read that Matt Hardy's deal ends in 11 days and I don't think WWE should sign him to another, which probably won't happen or I think one would already have been signed. I'm not sure if Jeff Hardy's deal expires in the same time either and while I doubt WWE will release Jeff unless he asks it, it wouldn't bother me if he left. Jeff can still go okay, but he's a lot slower than he used to be and that's not likely to change at age 41. Matt's 44 and, by his own statement, is dealing with a condition that's basically causing the bones of his pelvic region to fuse so his usefulness inside the ring is all but done, and it hasn't exactly been much to speak of since his return as watching him move in the ring these days during matches is like watching a guy 30 years older than he is. A case could also be made for Bobby Roode as he's done all he's going to do in WWE but he and Gable to make a useful tag team, even though I think Gable would be best served, at this point, if he went to 205 Live where his in-ring skills and athleticism can be put to better use.

At any rate, those I listed before strike me as the biggest wastes of space on the main roster.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Not a huge loss. Although I hope all three can find success some place else.

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Hey FunKay, big fan of your work ever since the Wrestlezone days. Just a note, you've accidentally mislabeled the thread as three talents released instead of one talent. I know this is a mistake because no one in their right mind would mistake TJP or Tye Dillinger for talent. Hopefully one of the admins can get that sorted out for you, and I really do hope KENTA can have one last good run in NOAH before hanging up his boots. Maybe even get a G-1 berth or a match against Miyahara? One can dream.

[ShinChan]

Hey FunKay, big fan of your work ever since the Wrestlezone days. Just a note, you've accidentally mislabeled the thread as three talents released instead of one talent. I know this is a mistake because no one in their right mind would mistake TJP or Tye Dillinger for talent. Hopefully one of the admins can get that sorted out for you, and I really do hope KENTA can have one last good run in NOAH before hanging up his boots. Maybe even get a G-1 berth or a match against Miyahara? One can dream.
Yes. In other words, I don't find two wrestling veterans talented so if anyone else does find them talented, they must not be in their right minds. Because when I say that TJP or Tye Dillinger aren't talented, it means that it's a fact and not my opinion. Anyone else thinking otherwise isn't in their right minds because I'm the only one with an opinion which is a fact. Others don't know anything as compared to me so if they have a different opinion from mine, then it means that they are out of right minds.

Well done.

[EnviousDominous]

The bad thing about making it to the biggest show of them all, is that everyone sees you look weak if that's how they portray you or if fate kicks you in the face.

This is why it's good to test people out in NXT prior to throwing them onto the main show.

Hideo, Tye, and TJ all looked weak in some way. Hideo would get injured just as soon as he'd return from a previous injury, and he never paid Kevin Owens back for kayfabe injuring him one of those times. Tye was neat, but he was more of a comic relief character than anything. TJ was TJ, and his retro-gamer gimmick is what would happen if you took DJZ's gimmick and marketed it toward 4 year olds.

They can just be regular people when they go anywhere else, and do amazingly well. They came to the biggest stage, and they couldn't latch on to something interesting to keep us emotionally involved in their characters.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I don't even watch 205 live so there's 2 out of 3 that I would have no idea either way if they were released or not, Tye was quite a dead act the second he stepped out of the NXT cone, they should have put him right back if he wanted to go back. Of all three if I had to pick the biggest waste of potential it would be TJP, see what Ali is doing on Smackdown, TJP could do the same with a little hype behind him and rubbing shoulders with main event stars like Ali.