The WWE Releases of 2022

Cristopher Guy aka "Ace Steel" previously worked as a coach and match producer for the Performance Center. Indie wrestling historians will surely recognize Steel as the trainer/stablemate of AEW wrestlers CM Punk and Colt Cabana (any Second City Saints fans reading this right now?).

The Great Khali's former manager Dave Kapoor aka "Ranjin Singh" previously held the role of SVP of Creative for NXT. Several wrestling sites report that he moved to Florida the year prior in order to work for NXT full-time.

Scott Armstrong, who is "Road Dogg" Jesse James' brother, helped referee and produce for NXT. It's pretty wild to note that Armstrong was among those furloughed by WWE back in April 2020.

George Carroll, who's previously worked with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Major League Wrestling (MLW), worked with WWE as a writer and producer.

Timothy Thatcher once held the NXT Tag Team Championship alongside Matt Riddle during his stint with the developmental brand. The last time fans saw him, Thatcher succumbed to an attack from Ridge Holland that wrote him off of TV.

Danny Burch is another former holder of the NXT Tag Team Championship. He held the titles with Oney Lorcan, who was also released by WWE in November of last year.

Hideki Suzuki is most known for his previous onscreen role as Hachiman alongside The Diamond Mine stable in NXT. He also worked as a Performance Center coach before his release.

Samoa Joe was last seen on NXT defeating Karrion Kross for the NXT Championship at NXT TakeOver 36. Sadly, he went down with an injury shortly after and was forced to vacate the title. Since that period of time, Joe worked alongside Triple H and William Regal in the role of talent development for NXT. It's worth noting that Joe got released last year, but was rehired by HHH and brought into NXT soon after (Hunter was pretty unhappy with Joe's treatment by the other powers that be within the company). This 2022 release marks the second time Joe's been let go by WWE.

Before Brian Kendrick requested his release from WWE, he primarily worked as a backstage producer for the NXT brand. During an angle where he was thrown down a flight of stairs by Harland, Brian was scheduled to wrestle him. But it was reported that Brian had requested to be let go from WWE around that time, which is why the match never took place.

Brian reportedly got his wish granted on February 1. Afterward, AEW put out a tweet promoting his match against Jon Moxley for the February 2 episode of Dynamite. But when several clips showing Brian's controversial conspiracy theories started making the rounds, AEW president Tony Khan was forced to nix him from the show due to overwhelming fan backlash.

After the 2022 Royal Rumble came to a close, wrestling dirtsheet reports started circulating regarding Shane McMahon's less-than-stellar behavior backstage as the match was mapped out. Due to his actions, it's been said that Shane has been quietly let go from WWE and has been excluded from any 2022 plans regarding Raw, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania 38. We're sure everyone's jaws dropped when this ended up being one of the biggest WWE releases in 2022.

The "Swiss Superman" has been reported as quietly exiting WWE after failing to come to terms with the company on signing a new deal. This one comes off as one of the most disappointing WWE releases in 2022.

Just days after winning the NXT Tag Team Championship alongside his MSK partner Wes Lee, Nash Carter was released from his WWE contract. And that release has reportedly been done due to recent allegations of abuse that were made by Carter's wife Kimber Lee (who's also a fellow professional wrestler). A troubling series of tweets and a controversial photo of Carter began making the rounds on Kimber's Twitter account, which gained steam and seemingly forced WWE's hand on the matter. The news surrounding this firing makes for one of the craziest WWE releases in 2022.

It was first reported by Fightful that the New Japan Pro Wrestling junior heavyweight wrestler turned WWE superstar took his leave from the company once his contract expired.

Malcolm Bivens was a mainstay on NXT 2.0 as the manager behind the Diamond Mine.

Blair Baldwin primarily worked in NXT 2.0 as a referee.

Harland was mainly utilized as Joe Gacy's muscle on NXT 2.0.

Persia Pirotta is most known for tagging with Indi Hartwell during her stint on NXT 2.0.

First signing with WWE back in 2021, Vish Kanya (real name Sanjana George) is an MMA fighter based out of India.

Draco Anthony is actually a trainee of WWE Hall of Famer Booker T - Draco made his debut on 205 Live against Roderick Strong.

Mila Malani (real name Kellie Morga) first reported to the WWE Performance Center back in 2021.

Raelyn Divine (real name Jaylen Williams) sadly never appeared on WWE TV.

It was reported that Troy "Two Dimes" Donovan, who was previously aligned with Tony D'Angelo and Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo, was released due to an unspecified "policy issue." This out-of-nowhere bit of news can be regarded as one of those WWE releases in 2022 that could be reversed in the next year or so.

On June 10, Paige took to her Twitter to let the world know about her intention to leave WWE at the end of her contract. That contract came to a close on July 7. This bit of news comes as one of the saddest WWE releases in 2022.

News of the WWE NXT UK brand going on hiatus hit the dirt sheets on August 18, which was then followed up by the announcement of the future launch of NXT Europe and an upcoming Worlds Collide event. Sadly, a good number of NXT UK talent were released on the very same day as those WWE news updates. Flash Morgan Webster and the following superstars coming up on this list have all been released from their home brand of NXT UK. This batch of WWE releases in 2022 definitely comes as a shocker.

It was reported that Jeff Jarrett departed from his duties as WWE's Senior Vice President of Live Events.

Some major changes were made to the commentary lineups for WWE Raw, NXT, and SmackDown, which resulted in two names getting relieved of their announcing duties. One of those names is Jimmy Smith, who formerly worked as the lead play-by-play announcer for Raw.

The other commentator that got his release was Nigel McGuiness, who used to fulfill his duties as an announcer for NXT UK, Main Event, and 205 Live.

This NXT talent had a prominent role within the Andre Chase University stable - he was written off of TV after being beaten down by Duke Hudson.

Sloane Jacobs (who worked on the indies under the name "The Notorious Mimi) last competed on an episode of NXT Level Up in October.

Miss Yan hails from Shanghai, China - the last time she competed on WWE TV was back in September for NXT.

This NXT competitor hadn't competed on the brand for close to a year before getting his release.

Ru Feng was a former NXT superstar signed from his homeland of China.

After dropping the NXT Women's Championship the night before to Roxanne Perez, Mandy Rose was released the very next day in a move reportedly due to her racy FanTime page content.