WWE Roster Cuts, Should Be Released, and "Future Endeavored" Discussion

[It's...Baylariat!]

Out of the three, Maria's the most surprising. Just started an angle with Matt Hardy and was named Diva of the Year, which was a fan vote. My guess is she requested this and got her wish. No need for the WWE to just release her.

I'm not sure why so many people like the Hurricane. I don't. I think he's a decent wrestler, but overrated as all get out. And you remember the gimmick he had.....with the glasses in the Titan Tron? Yea, out of all the people to play that character, he was maybe the least believable of the wrestlers the WWE could have went with. I'm sure he'll land in TNA or somewhere on the Indy scene. Isn't he dating Velvet Sky? If so, then I have ZERO sympathy for him. He'll be fine.

Paul Birchill isn't WWE material. Doesn't mean he's a bad wrestler, just means he's not a good WWE wrestler. He simply can't get over because he's not been given ample time to do so. His pirate gimmick was good for the time being, but was cut off too soon. Maybe let the gimmick run its course and the world would have been better off. But he was a short timer. And he lost a Loser leaves town match. So yea. Had to go somewhere.

I see Katie Lea, Tyler Reks, Zack Ryder, and maybe even someone like Kozlov being released. Wouldn't shock me.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Well it seems you can add referee Scott Armstrong to the list of releases now. He was one of the guys involved in the Montreal Screwjob 2009 at Breaking Point, which was a pretty big storyline, and WWE continued this storyline on a few episodes on Smackdown. I can't say I really care that much about this one.

I also think Kozlov will be released pretty soon. His best days were on Smackdown, when he got that monster push, and feuded with Undertaker,and Triple H. Ever since then, he really hasn't done anything worth remembering. Also, I expect Zack Ryder and Rosa Mendes will be gone soon enough.

 

[Jonnie Walker]

I was surprised by Maria and Scott Armstrong,but Helms had it coming. And Burchill should've been gone like two years ago. Helms had nothing after his feud with Burchill,and vice versa.But Maria literally just started getting it on with Matt Hardy, so it comes as a shock. And Scott Armstrong was in the Punk-Undertaker angle. This makes no sense. Oh, and Primo,you're next buddy.

 

[ajrodz10]

I cant beleive everyone think's ryder is going to be released,he just debuted on raw,and hes been gettin a huge push for the last couple of months.

Now i am completly shocked that scott armstrong has been released,he was in a major storyline and hes been in wwe forever,he's a freakin senoir official!,if your'e goingt to release a ref. release justin king,he's extremly awkward.

 

[quagmire]

I hope Maria requested to be released as it was her birthday yesterday. She probably has other work lined up so it isn't like she lost her income, but to release her on her b-day? Jeez harsh. " Happy Birthday and you're fired".

 

[TheHardyBoyz]

With these wrestlers released, who do you think shouldn't have been fired?
Paul Burchill: everyone saw that coming he hasn't been on television in months, since his "firing" from the now defunct ECW
Maria: former playboy cover girl and slammy award winning diva of the year, everyone knows she was never a good wrestler and only wanted air time
The Hurricane: i am really disppointed about this one, i really wanted to see him on raw or smackdown! he was the best of all three.

 

[M4xxWr3stl1ng]

Yeah well... i think that only Burchil should be released. Not many people ever liked him, and his in ring abilities were poor... but Maria and Hurricane??? I really liked both. They should release Croft-Barreta duo...

 

[Monkey]

I think that it was Maria. Sure she cant wrestle, but so cant half of the divas. If Vince is going to just use the divas as eye candy instead of wrestling, why let go of Maria?. She was one of the most gorgeous divas that they had IMO. So i think that releasing Maria was a strange choice.

 

[thedriffter50]

Wow I just heard of that...i think releasing Paul burchill isnt a good idea...he was a very good wrestler...maria barly gets air time but dont know why they released her though...but the strangest is The Hurricane...his been in WWE for almost a decade so im guessing he got fired because of the recent incident with Chris Jericho but shouldn't Chris Jericho be fired as well ? instead they fire Hurricane and reward Chris Jericho as world champ...WWE needs to sort themselves out because there turning into a joke

 

[KingShaw3]

I'm very disappointed with the release of Paul Burchill. I think he showed a lot of talent. I enjoyed his British brawler character and thought he had a good thing going as "The Ripper". He and his 'sister' Katie Lea were two of my favorites to watch on ECW. I think he was put into poor storylines that fell flat, leaving him with little momentum. I'm not much of a fan of Hurricane Helms or Maria, but thought Burchill had some untapped potential.

 

[truekiid96]

I'm kinda happy Paul Burchill is gone he wasn't bringing the ratings, niether is Katie. Now Maria Anh The Hurricane thats crazy. Maria can sort of wrestle but Vince could have sent her to FCW. The Hurricane I hope it's not because of the arrest cause if it is Jericho should be gone to. Whats fare is fare Vince bring back Maria And Hurricane

 

[chainsaw steve]

I think the Maria thing is a temporary thing. With her being on the apprentice and not being allowed to be on any other show, its the only logical thing to have happened. I have a feeling she will be back in the near future.

 

[MarcusFenixX]

Yah i gotta say im hugely disappointed with the maria release. Gorgeous diva, great asset to the company in popularity and interviewing skillz. o n THE HURRICANE?!?! WHY?! lol The man who upset The most electrifying man in sports entertainment in the rock, cut some of the funniest most priceless promos when given the airtime with "wuts up wit dat?!...beeeyottchhh" The hurricane brought us S.H.I.T.,the super hero in training and brought out our ineer super hero. And even besides the hurricane gimick, helms brought prestige to the cruiserweight title a couple years back with a 385 day title reign! And if it wasnt for his vertebrae injury its quite possible he would have held the title for even longer lol. I Hope he is picked up by TNA since there bringing "MOORE" to the table lol.

STAND BACK! THERES A HURRICANE COMING THROUGH!

 

[hatehabsforever]

Personally, I wasn't surprised about Paul Burchill's release. I was disappointed, though, because I thought he was a big guy with untapped potential. I think he was hurt by the IWC rumour about the alleged "incest angle" involving him and Katie Lea. I think people saw him negatively about this angle that I don't think was ever truly planned. I wouldn't be surprised to see Katie Lea follow him out the door. Good luck in TNA, Paul.

Pretty much neutral about Helms. The whole Hurricane thing was played out years ago, and he never really did much as Helms. Injury problems, minor legal troubles, not surprised to see him leave. Wouldn't be surprised to see him end up in TNA, or equally wouldn't be surprised to see him return to the WWE down the road.

Shocked about Maria. Of course she was a terrible wrestler, but so is just about the entire diva roster, so you would think that would be irrelevant. She was 2009 Diva of the Year, so she was clearly over with the fans, you would think that alone would give her job security. Either this was a mutual decision (I thought I recently read she wasn't planning on staying around too much longer anyway), or she's been temporarily released and will return after the Celebrity Apprentice show is over. She won't go to TNA. She'll either leave the business altogether, or return to WWE later.

Here's what surprises me. I recently read that Charlie Haas wanted to be released, but that the WWE re-signed him, even though they had no plans for him, just so he wouldn't go to TNA. I see Burchill, Helms, and even Maria as being more significant than Haas who I believe is absolutely awful. Why is the WWE worried about Haas jumping to TNA, which would be insignificant, but they're not worried about these three doing so. Seems inconsistent.

 

[BaAM!87]

I wonder if this is wwe's way of punishing matt hardy for his brother jeffs recent actions with TNA. Helms is well documented for being a great friend of matt hardy. Maria was being used as Matt Hardys on-screen girlfriend lately since V-Day. I thought that had some potential too. Maybe all Matt Hardy needed was a manager of some sort to get a little bit of a push. But now wwe stripped both those away from Matt. If I were Matt, I would jump ship at this point to TNA where it is almost guaranteed he would be pushed and have some great feuds. Paired with the Great Khali? come ON! its too embarrassing to watch sometimes...

 

[degenxr1]

They have to get rid of Maria for the Celebrity Apprentice according to the way Trump does the contract-supposedly she could not be on both shows at the same time and the new season of the Apprentice starts March 14. She stated that when she was on Howard Stern weeks ago with Sharon Osborne who are teamed together. So I believe it just a way of covering themselves.

I think the Hurricane has run his course for a while; and it was just an excuse to see him go. Jericho was not the instigator of the incident in the cab-he was just there.

I do hope they repackage Paul Burchill to something he can use later--he was quite good.

 

[Notorious718]

Meh. I really never cared for Burchill as he always came off as bland and generic after he dropped his pirate gimmick. I'd hate to see his sister follow him out as I'd like to think she still has a future in the women's division.

Maria's release comes as somewhat of a surprise to me as I was so sure WWE was gonna start a storyline between her and Matt Hardy but it obviously seems that's gone out the window. Other than that, I really don't care for her release either.

I'm disappointed about Hurricane's release though. I really enjoyed his in-ring work and I had hoped to see him get drafted to SD and drop his Hurricane gimmick and revert back to the cocky heel Gregory Helms. Out of the three releases, this one saddens me the most.

 

[acstylez]

I think Burchill could have tushed the stars if he had the right push. But no they wanna job him out to Helms as The Hurricane (the only time I can stand to watch him) and put this talentless **** Maria on TV. Paul should go to TNA. He could be the fit-in for the British invasion. He could be Ravens discipline. He could feud with Abyss or team with Aj Styles and Ric Flair. He would be one of the few new signers worth it. It's dame near the same with the Hurricane except I don't feel TNA doesn't need him because they have Sharkboy. Maria has one use to me. Outside the PG area I would have took a sparkling bra, red top, a thong and super short mini skirt and said "get ready to turn heal, Your Dolph Ziglers Bitch"!.!

 

[fredstephenson]

i dont like the way the wwe does this when a charecter gets stale or uninteresting they just get rid of them instead of building there charecters up again or reinventing them all three of these have been fun to watch in the past so why not make it that way again or at least try

helms i think has always been fun to watch when in his hurricane character he especially made some good tv when he teamed up with kane also i think seeing that wwe are aiming at children they should have had him as a midcarder on raw i think the hurricane gimmick would be a winner with the kids if it got some proper air time

maria shes never been the best wrestler ever but in my opinion she was definatly the hottest diva wwe had and the wwe could have benefited just by having her on screen i would have had her manage a main eventer such as john cena rey mysterio or someone like that or have her doing backstage interviews as i would rather look at her then josh matthews or whoever is doing them now.

burchill i havnt watched him much recently but i remember quite a while back they did a pirates of the carribean type gimmick with him and i though it was pretty awesome and as i mentioned earlier wwe is aimed at children now and what could sell more merchendise to children then a swaggering wrestling pirate seeing as selling merchendise seems to be the number one priority at the moment but i also seem to remember him a pretty decent wrestler aswell which of course would help

obviously it is necessary to let people go from time to time it just seems that the wwe look for the quick fix and get rid of people when theyve gone a bit stale or whatever instead of trying to build them up again and if that doesnt work then fire them.

 

[Travaje]

Maria being released is not a surprise. I thought she wanted to be released? Start a family, pursue other opportunities, etc.

When I think of WWE guys going to TNA that make sense, The Hurricane makes sense, and I can't believe it hasn't happened sooner. I don't know if he can work, but he's the right size for the X-Division.

And who cares about Paul Burchill....

 

[XgringolocoX]

Burchill's release I saw coming after that ECW firing. He just never caught on. Lackluster is a good description.
Maria I was suprised got the axe. She gotten to most main stream attention with the Playboy cover and being on the Apprentice. Wonder what the reasoning behind that one was.
Helms suprises me, and shocks me at the same time. The Hurricane was over, though I didn't care for him. I'm guessing it's a combination of the arrest incident and not having enough spots on RAW or Smackdown to fit him in. Victim of circumstance.

 

[ccotreau1]

IMO they should have put the singing gimmick on Maria, and release Jillian Hall. At least with Maria, she can actually sing, and what I would have liked to see is a sing-off between Maria and Lillian Garcia before Lillian left. But thats just me. So in answer the question of the original poster, I was disappointed with the release of Maria and the Hurricane. Maria can now pursue the singing full time if she so chooses to.

 

[hawaiianbulldog]

Yeah this doesn't come as a shock to me, not only the arrest, but the fact that the Wwe is sending all ECW stars to raw or smackdown and I knew that there would be releases that I wouldn't agree with. Though I would have liked to see him have a feud or two with superstars who can cut a good promo. As far as Maria there are divas that I personally would release first, but with the dive division at an all time low I find myself not caring. And last but not least Burchill, it seems like a lot of people keep saying he could be the next best thing and that he is so good, but he isn't a spectacular heel and wouldn't work as a face, maybe if he had a manager he good do something worth while but this is a long over due release.

 

[Spillz3000]

Definitely the worst is Hurricane. He can get Face Pops or Heel Heat whenever he wanted too. He could have definitely been an established mid-carder or even upper-midcarder if they kept him in good fueds. I would have definitely bought the Hurricane or Gregory Helms as an IC or US champion. But no they kept The Hurricane in meaningless fueds and never used him to his potential once he came back. What gives with that anyway? The guy is gone for over a year with a serious neck injury and then when he comes back(and he got a huge pop when he did too) you do nothing with him and then release him. You should have saved him the bullshit and let him go when he was injured(albeit a horrible thing to do but Vince didn't do much better with him). But now we can have Shane, Gregory, or Hurricane Helms in TNA and I hope he makes a splash in the X-Division and I hope that him and Moore become a tag team cause they fed off each other so well.

Maria is definitely the biggest surprise but with all the reasons stated before it makes sense. Paul Burchill was unfortunately a victim of circumstance. They let him rot in ECW and when the brand ended he got the axe. A shame cause I thought a couple of years ago when he was fueding with Kofi I thought he could have made something of himself.

Honestly eventhough I'm a huge fan of him I think Matt Hardy should have been given his release as well. He's rotting away in the WWE and by the time Vince sees no use in him he'll be so far gone that TNA won't even waste their time. Smell the roses Matt and get your ass out of there before you go through a lot more bullshit and then get fired.

 

[matman8540]

Paul Burchill was a competent wrestler, but his personality didn't go over in the E. His appearances usually meant he was putting someone else over, and the E has more than their share of those. Maria probably got released for appearance's sake, while she's appearing on Celebrity Apprentice. She'll get rehired after that program is completed. Helms got the pink slip for "being drunk in pub-a-lic", and Vince didn't want to really foul up Wrestlemania for Edge. Someone had to pay for this transgression, and it wasn't going to be Jericho.