It happens at least once a year: the dreaded WWE roster cuts. The round of releases in February 2025 was particularly substantial, with some well-known names getting the ax.
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00:00It happens at least once a year, the dreaded WWE roster cuts. The round of releases in
00:06February 2025 was especially substantial, with some well-known names getting the axe.
00:11In her nearly ten years in WWE, Sonya Deville has played a lot of roles and broken one major
00:16barrier, given that she was the first openly gay woman to be a WWE superstar. She was reportedly
00:22informed that her contract with the company will not be renewed, and it's unclear right
00:26when that contract actually expires.
00:28Deville got her start in WWE on the 2015 season of the reality training show Tough Enough.
00:33Though she was the third competitor eliminated that season, she was good enough to score a
00:37WWE contract that October and started working NXT house shows under her real name, Daria
00:42Barinato. Her first televised NXT appearance came on the July 13, 2016 episode, where she,
00:48Alexa Bliss, and Mandy Rose lost a six-woman tag team match to Carmella,
00:52Liv Morgan, and Nikki Cross. Her name changed to Sonya Deville in April 2017,
00:57and she stayed in NXT until December 2017, when she made her way to the main roster and joined
01:02the team Absolution alongside Rose and Paige. Absolution feuded with Bayley,
01:06Mickie James, and Sasha Banks heading into 2018, but Paige's retirement from WWE led to
01:12the group disbanding that April. Rose and Deville continued to work together as Fire & Desire.
01:16As they often do, that team broke up, and the two had a no-disqualification loser-leaves
01:21WWE match at SummerSlam 2020, with Rose emerging the victor. Deville briefly went on hiatus to
01:27deal with some real-life legal problems involving a stalker and attempted kidnapping. She returned
01:31in a non-wrestling role as the general manager of SmackDown in 2021. Deville re-entered in-ring
01:36competition in 2022, and eventually claimed the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships alongside
01:42Chelsea Green in 2023. Unfortunately, an ACL injury in August of that year forced Deville
01:47to vacate her title. Upon her return, Deville founded Pure Fusion Collective alongside Shayna
01:52Baszler and Zoey Stark. Deville most recently competed in the 2025 Women's Royal Rumble.
01:57It's unclear whether she will make any future appearances, as she waits for her contract to
02:01expire. But it seems like more wrestling is definitely in her future.
02:05What's the toughest part?
02:06Ooh, the travel.
02:08Yeah.
02:08Yeah, because I love wrestling, and I love the physicality, and I love
02:12everything about it, pretty much.
02:13After runs in stardom, AEW, Revolution Pro Wrestling, and elsewhere as Bea Priestley,
02:18Blair Davenport came to WWE in NXT UK in 2021, introducing herself with a four-match winning
02:24streak. She established herself as a force to be reckoned with in NXT UK, eventually making her
02:29way to NXT when the two brands merged in 2022. She snagged a wild card spot in a title unification
02:35match at NXT World's Collide between NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose and NXT UK Women's Champion
02:42Mako Satomura. Rose emerged victorious, but it was the start of a strong run in NXT for the next
02:47year plus. Davenport was called up to the main roster in 2024, locking up with Naomi and Indi
02:52Hartwell in a Money in the Bank triple threat qualifying match. She lost to Naomi, and joined
02:57forces with Alba Fire and Isla Dawn of the Unholy Union to feud with Naomi, Jade Cargill, and Bianca
03:02Belair. After a loss to that trio, Davenport attempted to stake her claim on the WWE Speed
03:07Women's Championship, only to once again be bested by Naomi. Davenport's last televised WWE
03:13match was on the November 22, 2024 episode of SmackDown, where she lost in the first round of
03:18the WWE Women's United States Championship tournament to eventual winner Chelsea Green.
03:23Another longtime WWE roster member who bounced around the card quite a bit,
03:27Cedric Alexander has closed the book on his eight-year career with the company.
03:30He first broke out as part of the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament,
03:34which saw fans publicly demand he be signed following a standout second-round match with
03:38Kota Ibushi. Alexander was seen thereafter on 205 Live and was often in number one
03:43contendership matches for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Yet he never pushed for the title
03:48before 2018, when he fought his way through a tournament for the vacant belt. Alexander
03:52finally won the title in the tournament finals on the WrestleMania 34 kickoff show and held
03:56it for 181 days. After Alexander dropped the title to Buddy Murphy at Super Showdown 2018,
04:02he began to perform on the main roster full-time. His biggest claim to fame there
04:06ended up being two 24-7 title wins in 2019 and 2020, both of which lasted less than a day.
04:12He also briefly joined the Hurt Business, winning the Raw Tag Team Championships with
04:16Shelton Benjamin in December 2020. They held the titles for 85 days,
04:20losing them to The New Day in March 2021. Just prior to his release, Alexander began
04:25appearing in NXT, where he allied himself with Javon Evans. Alexander's last match saw him fall
04:30to Ethan Page on January 28, 2025. Who knows where he may end up next?
04:35I need to succeed. I need this in my life.
04:38After a long and winding seven years with WWE, Giovanni Vinci's run with the company has come
04:43to an end. Vinci debuted under the name Fabian Aichner on NXT in September 2017. He stayed there
04:49in fairly under-the-radar capacity until May 2019, when he made his way to NXT UK to join
04:54forces with Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser in the Imperium faction. Vinci returned, along with
04:59Imperium, to NXT in 2020. He and Kaiser won the NXT Tag Team titles from Matt Riddle and Timothy
05:04Thatcher that May, holding them for 105 days. They lost their championships in August 2020
05:09to Breezango, but won them back at Halloween Havoc 2021 in a Lumberjack O'Lantern match
05:14against MSK. In their second run, Vinci and Kaiser held the titles for 158 days before
05:19dropping them back to MSK at Stand & Deliver 2022. Gunther and Kaiser were called up to the
05:24main roster in spring 2022. Vinci was not. That's when he took on his new name in NXT,
05:29reimagining himself as a wealthy, European Bon Vivant. This didn't last long, however.
05:34Vinci was called up and reunited with Imperium in September 2022. He and Kaiser reunited as a
05:40tag team, but Vinci kept his new name.
05:42It is such a pleasure to not having to play and act or, like, you know, be that character that
05:49you're actually not."
05:50In April 2024, Kaiser turned on Vinci, who was exiled from Imperium, and WWE programming.
05:56Vinci did make an attempt at a return to a short-lived NXT gimmick,
05:59but that only led to a couple quick losses on SmackDown. Vinci's last broadcast match
06:04saw him eliminated in the first round of the WWE Speed Championship
06:07No. 1 Contender tournament by Sheamus.
06:10Isla Dawn is yet another NXT UK alum among the recent WWE releases.
06:15She technically made her WWE debut under the name Stacey Coates in November 2017,
06:20when she lost a squash match to Asuka on Raw, but she first showed up as Isla Dawn on NXT UK
06:25in June 2018. After NXT UK was dissolved in 2022, Dawn went to the stateside NXT,
06:31winning her first match there against Thea Hale that December.
06:34Dawn started teaming with Alba Fire in 2023, and the two claimed the NXT Women's Tag Team
06:39Championships at Stand & Deliver that April. They lost the titles in a unification match
06:44against then-WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, two months later,
06:49but the pair continued to operate as a tag team on the main roster.
06:52Calling themselves The Unholy Union, Dawn and Fire shocked the world when they claimed the
06:56WWE Women's Tag Team Championships in a triple threat against Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill,
07:02Baszler, and Zoey Stark at Clash of the Castle in 2024. The pair held onto the titles for an
07:07impressive 77 days before dropping them back to Belair and Cargill at Bash in Berlin.
07:12The Unholy Union continued to operate as a team, at least until Dawn's release. Her last
07:16broadcast match was a loss to Shotzi in the WWE Speed Women's Championship No. 1 Contendership
07:22Tournament semifinals.
07:24Duke Hudson's release came as a shock to many familiar with NXT, given his massive popularity
07:28during his tenure with the Chaseyou faction. Hudson was in WWE for six years. Hudson started
07:33his WWE career in 2019 under his real name Brendan Vink. After appearing exclusively at
07:39NXT house shows, he made his first televised appearance on the March 3, 2020 episode of Raw,
07:44where he and teammate Shane Thorne were defeated by the Street Profits. Hudson continued to make
07:49main roster appearances as an enhancement talent under his real name throughout 2020.
07:53He began performing under the name Duke Hudson during the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament,
07:58where he made it to the second round before losing to Carmelo Hayes. Hudson's career remained quiet
08:02until he became embroiled in a feud against Cameron Grimes. Hudson ultimately lost that
08:06feud after losing both a hair-versus-hair match and a no-holds-barred match. Hudson continued to
08:11float around NXT until November 2022, when he was integrated into Chaseyou as the faction's flag
08:17bearer alongside cheerleader Thea Hale and Andre Chase. Hudson and Chase won the NXT Tag Team
08:21Championships in October 2023, but they only held those titles for 21 days. Hudson's last televised
08:27match was on the October 9, 2024 episode of NXT, where he lost to Ridge Holland. Chaseyou was
08:33disbanded shortly after. Hudson recently released a cryptic video in which he attempts to work
08:37through his WWE departure.
08:39How do you feel about wasting six years of your life in that building?
08:43I wouldn't say it was a waste.
08:44Ah, come on!
08:45After runs in Ring of Honor and TNA, Electra Lopez made her way to NXT in June 2021,
08:51debuting in a loss to Frankie Monet. What followed was an up-and-down run in NXT,
08:55where she logged some wins but also plenty of losses, and never got the chance to compete
09:00for the NXT Women's Championship. Lopez had an odd history with the stable Legado del Fantasma.
09:05She joined the group in 2022, when it was made up of Santos Escobar, Cruz del Toro,
09:10and Joaquin Wilde. Toward the end of the year, the stable was called up to the main roster,
09:14but the three men were accompanied not by Lopez, but by Zelina Vega.
09:18Lopez, meanwhile, remained in NXT, forming a team with Lola Vice.
09:22After lots of twists and turns involving Legado del Fantasma and the LWO, Lopez was finally called
09:27up to the main roster and rejoined the group in January 2024. Though she did notch a win against
09:32Vega in April of that year, she rarely got to showcase her talents in the ring after that.
09:36Her last TV match was a loss to Tiffany Stratton in the first round of the WWE Women's United
09:42States Championship tournament.
09:45Yes, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have been released by WWE — again.
09:49Gallows previously had a run in the company, Asbestos, and a member of the Straight Edge
09:53Society ending in 2010. But he and Anderson debuted as a duo in the company in 2016,
09:58joining up alongside AJ Styles as The Club, an attempt to recreate their Bullet Club faction
10:03from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Gallows and Anderson's first WWE run saw them feud with
10:08The New Day, as well as Cesaro and Sheamus. They won the Raw tag team titles from the latter duo
10:13at the 2017 Royal Rumble kickoff show and held the championships for 63 days,
10:17dropping them to the Hardy Boys at WrestleMania 33 in a four-way ladder match.
10:21In 2019, Gallows, Anderson, and Styles rebranded their group as The O.C., or Original Club,
10:27and the team known as the Good Brothers outside WWE won the Raw tag titles again
10:31in a triple threat with The Revival and The Usos. Gallows and Anderson dropped the titles just 21
10:36days later to Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins, kicking off a string of losses that led to the
10:40duo's eventual release in 2020, while Styles stuck around. The Good Brothers made a return
10:45to their old stomping grounds in TNA, winning three Impact Tag Team Championships and appeared
10:50on AEW television a few times as well. They returned to WWE in 2022, reuniting with Styles
10:56and adding Mia Yim to reform The O.C. Most recently, Gallows and Anderson had been making
11:01occasional appearances on NXT, and their last televised match saw them take a loss to Hank
11:05and Tank on September 24th. The Authors of Pain are another tag team that have seen something of
11:10a revolving door in WWE, with their 2025 release being their second from the company. Their manager,
11:16Paul Ellering, went with them, too. After initially debuting under their real names
11:20in 2015, they became Akum and Rezar, the Authors of Pain in NXT in 2016,
11:25joined by industry veteran Ellering as their manager. They'd go on to win the Dusty Rhodes
11:29Tag Team Classic that year and defeat DIY for the NXT Tag Team Championships at TakeOver San
11:34Antonio in 2017. They held those titles for a whopping 203 days, finally losing them to sanity
11:40at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn 3. AOP made their main roster debut on the April 9th, 2018 episode of
11:46Raw. They scored the Raw Tag Team Championships after defeating Seth Rollins in a two-on-one
11:50handicap match in November 2018. They only held those titles for 35 days, after which they floated
11:56around the main roster before being released in 2020. The team returned in January 2024 to aid
12:01Karrion Kross and his misadventures against Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits. The faction of AOP,
12:06Kross, and Scarlett became known as the Final Testament. AOP's last WWE match was on the
12:11January 2, 2025 episode of Main Event, where they defeated Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde of the LWO.