WWE Releases Several Wrestlers

There were more WWE releases just a day before the company’s Backlash Premium Live Event.

The wrestlers released on May 3rd were related to the NXT brand along with individuals who have yet to debut on television. The most notable name released was Drew Gulak, who has been a part of the company since 2017 and was most recently on the NXT brand.

Drew Gulak’s name has been in the news over the last month due to comments made by Ronda Rousey about a backstage incident at a WWE show. According to Rousey, Gulak pulled a string on her sweatpants while they were around other people.

After Rousey made it known what Gulak did, Gulak admitted that it was true while saying it was an accident that he apologized for.

Since then, WWE wrote Gulak off the NXT brand by doing an angle where the No Quarter Catch Crew group that Gulak was a part of asked Tony D’Angelo’s Family to take care of a problem they had. The problem they referred to without naming names was Gulak, who was essentially “killed off” the NXT brand on the April 16th episode of the show.

The list of ten names released by WWE (including Drew Gulak), via PWInsider, are as follows. The names were also reported by Fightful Select as well.

* Ezekiel Balogun.

* Julian Baldi.

* Trey Bearhill.

* Valentina Feroz.

* Darrell Mason.

* Vlad Pavlenko.

* Kiyah Saint.

* Keyshawn Leflore

* Emmamaria Diaz

Of the names above, Feroz had the most matches on the NXT brand. Bearhill was used a bit in an angle with Lexis King, but not featured heavily.

It was noted by PWInsider that Lefore and Diaz were shown on the WWE Roku Channel series WWE: Next Gen although they weren’t utilized much after that.

UPDATE: An 11th wrestler was also released because PWInsider reported that Boa was also released.

Why Did WWE Release Ten Wrestlers?

As for why World Wrestling Entertainment chose to release ten wrestlers at once, PWInsider reports that the wrestlers that were let go were not being utilized and were not planned for anything soon.

As mentioned above, Gulak had the most successful WWE career since he was a part of the company since 2017. Gulak held the Cruiserweight Title in WWE and also won the 24/7 Title as well.

Gulak’s WWE deal expired in May 2020 although he quickly re-signed to have another run in the company. Gulak was moved to NXT in January 2023 to work with younger talent. Gulak was a part of the No Quarter Catch Crew group with Charlie Dempsey, Damon Kemp & Myles Borne until the angle with The D’Angelo Family that wrote Gulak off television.