Big E, Solo Sikoa, Damian Priest React to New Day, Tonga Loa & JC Mateo's Exits from WWE
The newest exits from the WWE roster elicited a reaction from inside the locker room.
The company reportedly cut ties with Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Tonga Loa and JC Mateo on Saturday.
Big E reposted a graphic of Kingston and Woods walking out the door and leaving their New Day selves behind, while Damian Priest said that "the locker room hurts":
Solo Sikoa also showed his support for Loa and Mateo:
Post-WrestleMania roster cuts have been an unfortunate annual tradition in WWE, one that continued when the promotion merged with the UFC under the TKO Group Holdings banner.
Many fans assumed that process concluded when a slew of talent was let go in late April.
The releases of Kingston and Woods were especially shocking because they've been with the company for so long. Kingston debuted with ECW in 2008, while Woods got called up from NXT in 2013. They helped make The New Day one of the defining tag teams of the era, and Kingston's WrestleMania 35 victory over Daniel Bryan was an organic moment of euphoria that few singular events have matched.
According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, TKO approached the pair about restructuring their contracts. Instead, the parties all mutually agreed to move on.
Fan frustration with WWE's corporate leadership has grown to the point where it was a subplot of Cody Rhodes' WrestleMania 42 battle with Randy Orton. Saturday's developments are bound to exacerbate the situation.
