Shortly after WrestleMania every year, WWE does its annual "Spring cleaning" where it releases various superstars from its roster. The last batch of WWE releases happened just this past April, when the company released high profile superstars like Samoa Joe, Mickie James, and others. Not even two months later, WWE has released another batch of superstars, and it includes some rather shocking wrestlers.
WWE has released Aleister Black, Braun Strowman, Lana, Murphy, Ruby Riott, and Santana Garrett. Out of these releases, the most surprising have to be Aleister Black and Braun Strowman, as the two of them have been heavily featured on WWE programming. In fact, Aleister Black just recently debuted on SmackDown, starting a feud with one of the show's top babyfaces, Big E. Braun Strowman, meanwhile, had a high profile feud with Shane McMahon, which culminated in a Steel Cage Match at WrestleMania.
As usual, WWE has not given any specific reasoning as to why it released these superstars. However, it doesn't seem as though these releases came from people requesting their release from the company. Aleister Black has tweeted that his release came out of "complete left field," which makes sense as WWE had just started a feud between him and Big E on SmackDown, as previously mentioned.
One has to wonder what will be next for these newly released WWE superstars. Aleister Black had a successful career on the indie circuit as Tommy End before joining the WWE, and it stands to reason that he would be a hot free agent considering his track record of delivering quality matches. Braun Strowman, meanwhile, is more a product of WWE and doesn't have indie wrestling experience, so it's unclear if he will stay in the professional wrestling business or seek out other employment.
Lana, meanwhile, may be a perfect fit for WWE's rival promotion, All Elite Wrestling, or AEW. Lana's real-life husband Miro is the current TNT Champion in AEW, having defeated Darby Allin for the title a few weeks ago on an episode of AEW Dynamite. Lana and Miro were a popular couple in WWE (back when Miro was known as Rusev), and so it would make sense to pair them together again in AEW.
It's also unclear what these latest WWE releases mean for the upcoming WWE 2K22 video game. It's possible that these superstars will still appear in the game since the roster is usually finalized by now, but it's also possible that they will be cut before release. WWE fans will just have to stay tuned to find out more.