Add as a preferred source on Google There has been talk among WWE talent of a possible reason for Friday’s mass roster cuts.
In his latest PWInsider Q&A column, Mike Johnson addressed a question about the post-WrestleMania 42 releases, which on April 24 wiped out the entire Wyatt Sicks faction along with Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Kairi Sane, and several others. Johnson said he has been hearing from people inside the company that the releases have been tied internally to one specific creative outlook at the TKO level.
Johnson wrote:
“I don’t know if there’s a pattern but I can tell you there’s been a story bouncing around among talents that someone in the TKO realm isn’t a fan of the darker characters and that’s been the blame placed on why The Wyatts, Aleister Black, Zelina, etc. were all cut.”
He added that some talent have pointed to how The Undertaker is currently being presented as evidence of that mindset.
“One person even suggested to me that Undertaker being The American Badass and not The Deadman in appearances is proof of that outlook.”
Johnson stressed that the story remains unverified and is, for now, nothing more than locker room talk.
“I have no way to prove that is correct, but the story has made the rounds this past week among numerous people we’ve spoken with. Whether there is something to it, or just assumptions, I can’t verify at this juncture.”
In the same column, Johnson laid out his own read on the situation, writing that his feeling is that the releases were primarily a budget move ahead of TKO’s next quarterly earnings rather than a creative purge. He noted that the company had invested heavily in The Wyatt Sicks, including a dedicated attraction at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights just six months before the group was wiped off the roster.
The Wyatt Sicks — Bo Dallas, Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, Dexter Lumis, and Erick Rowan — debuted on the June 17, 2024 episode of Raw and worked their final match as a unit against Solo Sikoa’s MFTs in a street fight on the WrestleMania 42 go-home edition of SmackDown.
The Undertaker has worked exclusively in his American Badass persona during sporadic appearances on WWE television since returning at Raw’s Netflix premiere in January 2025.