Dave Meltzer Reacts To Recent WWE Releases

WWE's tradition of post-WrestleMania releases has carried over into the TKO Group Holdings era, with Sanga, Veer, Jinder Mahal, Xia Li, Xyon Quinn and Von Wagner all released during "SmackDown" last weekend. On the latest "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer said there's little surprise to the names that got cut.

"None of these guys were used, and women," Meltzer said. While he wasn't surprised by the names who got released, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor was surprised by how little the released stars were used, considering the reason for Sanga, Veer, Jinder, Xia, and Xyon's prominence in the company. Mahal even held the WWE Championship for a spell in the hopes of bolstering the company's foothold in the Indian subcontinent. 

"The company was so adamant about Chinese stars and Indian stars because of the population of China and the population of India, so they brought these people up and they didn't do anything with them."

Meltzer believes that the releases indicate a change in strategy from WWE, as the company realizes its prospects in the Indian and Chinese markets are not what they had hoped they'd be. The populations of both countries aren't as easy to monetize as the numbers would suggest.

"You see the population, you get all intoxicated by it but it just doesn't work," Meltzer said. WWE also has prospects with its new deal with Netflix, as the popular streamer puts WWE programming into prospective marketplaces much more fluidly than previous attempts at building its own infrastructure. Netflix will carry "WWE Raw" and Premium Live Events in domestic and international territories starting in 2025.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.