News

Fired WWE Star Blasts Rumours About Their Release

By Lyle Kilbane • Published May 07, 2025 12:50 EDT
WWE logo over Chase U

One released WWE star has hit back at suggestions they were let go after refusing to change shows.

Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, and Shayna Baszler were the biggest names released from the WWE roster as the company made more cuts despite record revenue. Several NXT talents, including Gallus, Jakara Jackson, Cora Jade, and Riley Osborne, were also released.

It’s since been reported that Braun Strowman was let go due to his high salary, but the reasons for other names on the list are less clear. There have been suggestions that some released WWE stars were not working hard enough, but one star seems to have been on the chopping block for different reasons.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Riley Osborne had been pulled off TV for non-wrestling reasons, and it was those reasons that ultimately led to him being let go:

Riley Osborne’s really good and people didn’t really see it. They stopped using him after the Chase U thing was done. They didn’t really focus on him but I was told at house shows, he was excellent.

His situation was one of those where it had to do with non-wrestling things. There was some – not political, that’s not the right word – there were some things that happened with him and it kind of led to them taking him off television.

[…] He was not cut for talent.

Bryan Alvarez later followed up, noting that Osborne might have been let go after resisting a move to the Evolve roster:

One of the big things was, there are people that they want to go and help out Evolve. And I was told he did not want to go to Evolve, and he made it very well known.

Riley Osborne Noted For His Professionalism In WWE

Riley Osborne, however, disagrees with that assessment.

Taking to social media, Osborne gave his side of the story and said he was offered a day off when his wife was released and had been commended on his professionalism:

I worked the first set of Evolve tapings the day after my wife was released. When I was told by head coach on a phone call that night I can have it off tomorrow if I need time with my wife as we had to pull out of the house we were like 2 weeks from closing on, all I had to do was tell him yea I’d like just a day to be with her.

I was the first person in that building the next day and was commended on my professionalism. I will not have my work ethic questioned when I was busting my ass off in rehab to return which I knew the return would have been on Evolve.

Not everything you read online is true.

Riley Osborne’s wife is former WWE star Bea Priestley, who was let go from the company on February 7 2025.