Shortly after its merger with UFC parent company Endeavor, WWE completes a major wave of layoffs. Most prominent victim: former top star Dolph Ziggler.
New mega-company, old familiar company culture: shortly after the official completion of the merger with UFC parent company Endeavor, WWE has completed its biggest wave of layoffs in years.
In the slipstream of the good news that the wrestling league has signed a new, even fatter TV deal for the show SmackDown, it came out on Thursday that numerous wrestlers will have to go in order to thin the ever-growing squad.
A number of talents are affected, but also many well-known names who had recently played a less prominent role in the empire of scandal-ridden company founder Vince McMahon.
The best-known “victim” of the firing quake is former World Champion Dolph Ziggler (Nick Nemeth), for whom it is over after 18 years with WWE. The 43-year-old, a high-profile and reliable performer for many years, is likely to be one of those for whom competitor AEW is paying attention. Ziggler’s younger brother Ryan Nemeth is also already under contract there.
WWE also fires Elias, Mustafa Ali and others
In addition to Ziggler, a number of other former champions and crowd favourites were also caught. Also fired were longtime ring veteran Shelton Benjamin, Elias, known for his creative guitar concerts, and Mustafa Ali, who excelled in the ring but never really hit his stride as a character.
Other affected stars who have been active on the main roster include former Women’s Tag Team Champion Aliyah, Dana Brooke who has been with WWE for over a decade, former NFL player Top Dolla (AJ Francis), Rick Boogs, Riddick Moss and his fiancée Emma, “Maximum Male Modles Mansoor and Mace (Brennan Williams, also a former NFL footballer), Indian hunk Shanky and former Dresden GFL footballer Babatunde Aiyegbusi.
Aiyegbusi, a Polish heavyweight with Nigerian roots, appeared in WWE as Dabba-Kato and as Commander Azeez.
Two rematches of Triple H already completed
Noticeable: With Emma and Top Dolla from the Hit Row group, two of the many stars who had been brought back by talent and creative director “Triple H” Paul Levesque only last year, when he had sole responsibility at WWE in the meantime, were also caught.
Neither Emma nor Hit Row – gutted by the loss of former leader Swerve Strickland, who moved to AEW after his WWE layoff – were able to establish themselves sustainably, however.
Otherwise, the wave of layoffs – as far as it is known so far – concerns talents from the NXT developmental squad, but most of them had not made it to TV there.
Dolph Ziggler at WWE main event level for long time
The definitive deepest cut is the end for Ziggler, who had been main-eventing with WWE in the interim.
In 2012/13, Ziggler reached his career high when he won the Money in the Bank ladder match and then dethroned World Champion Alberto Del Rio on the RAW edition after WrestleMania to the cheers of the crowd. Another time, in a feud with Edge, Ziggler had previously been named World Champ by his scripted love Vickie Guerrero – Eddie’s widow.
Just seeing all these releases now.
These days so f’n tough for the ones who gave their all to our crazy world of pro wrestling. Like @HEELZiggler
What a decorated @WWE career and I’ll always be a supporter and fan. Can’t wait to see what he (and everyone) does next… onward pic.twitter.com/uc5vXNxxNk– Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 22, 2023
Ziggler also held the Intercontinental, US and various tag team titles several times,
he was also at the centre of fan discussions for years as to whether WWE could have done significantly more with his career.
When asked if he was nevertheless satisfied with his achievements, that the performance culture in wrestling and his personal ambition forbade him any satisfaction: “Am I satisfied? On the contrary. I’m doing everything I can to always get more out of it.”
Most recently, Ziggler had been noticeably relegated in the WWE hierarchy, his last major mission a move to the developmental squad NXT, where he helped establish top talent Bron Breakker – the son of Hall of Famer Rick Steiner and Scott’s nephew – as champion.
Various former colleagues reached out to Ziggler via social media, including megastars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, currently back in WWE, and John Cena, an old rival of Ziggler.
Cena paid tribute to Ziggler’s enormous workload of a total of 1554 matches on TV shows, The Rock also took a bow: “What a highly decorated WWE career, I will always be a fan and supporter. Can’t wait to see what he (and everyone else) will do now. “
