Vince McMahon believes WWE's released wrestlers were 'dead weights' 

WWE released their last pool of wrestlers earlier in January due to budget cuts. WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis had sent out an email which mentioned that John Morrison, Tegan Nox, Drake Maverick, Hit Row (Top Dolla, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott & Ashante “Thee” Adonis), Shane Thorne, and Jaxson Ryker have all been relieved from their duties in the second round of budgetary cuts. The previous release included 18 wrestlers which had names like Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Scarlett Boudreaux, and Nia Jax.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon termed the released group of wrestlers as ‘dead weights’ and mentioned that he is always concerned for the entertainment of the audience. He, additionally added that, if people are not making the most of their opportunities then they need to be replaced. 

“I’m always concerned about what’s best for the audience. Always. What does the audience want? And if you have dead weight around, you have situations whereby someone’s not cutting it and you have an opportunity for someone else to come in, it’s like, okay, that’s probably the best thing,” McMahon said in an interview on The Pat McAfee Show. 

“It’s one of the reasons why, with [Hulk] Hogan and a lot of those guys who left me at one time, [it’s] why I brought them back…what’s the best thing for business? If the audience wants Hulk Hogan back, you bring him back, if he has value that way.”

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It should be noted that former WWE writer Vince Russo who worked closely with McMahon and has observed his growth over the years. He also knew that McMahon was not going to grab the eyeballs at WrestleMania 15 after being booked to win the Royal Rumble in 1999. 

The champion of Royal Rumble usually challenges the World Championship at WrestleMania. But things turned out differently for McMahon as the story line needed to be different and more appealing for the audience. 

“The important creative there was obviously Vince can’t wrestle Austin at WrestleMania. That’s not going to happen. So we’re going to have the shocker of Vince winning the Royal Rumble, but then, bro, you have to have really good storytelling in getting Vince out of that match before WrestleMania,” Russo told Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Dr. Chris Featherstone. 

“What I loved about Vince was, whatever Ed and I wrote for him… bro, he did it,” Russo continued. 

“He didn’t concentrate on himself. Like when we were going over the Vince part of the show, it was just like we were going over DX [D-Generation X]. When it was Vince, it wasn’t, ‘Okay, let’s talk about Vince now for two hours.’ It was just like he was another character on the show,” he added.