Advice for WWE Creative: Cleaning Up the Mess from Recent Releases

While the two previous editions of this column have focused on fixing broken concepts and the career of a struggling Superstar, the same doesn't apply this week.

WWE announced on Wednesday it had reached agreement on the release of six Superstars from the company, with Braun Strowman, Aleister Black and Ruby Riott among those leaving.

WWE Creative can't fix that and may not have even been at fault for a lot of the issues that led to the situation, as these calls are made by higher-ups, but can it fill the gaps, make up for inconsistencies that will come out of this and ensure it doesn't happen again?

Let's try to clean up the furore that was created with this latest round of releases.

Addressing the Problems and Explaining the Situation

Credit: WWE.com

On June 2, it was announced that Aleister Black, Braun Strowman, Buddy Murphy, Lana, Ruby Riott and Santana Garrett had been released from WWE.

WWE claims this keeps happening due to budget cuts—something Black echoed in his statements about his release.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Daniel Wood of Sportskeeda) and fans have speculated this may be a sign of other things to come, such as preparing to sell the company or making room for increased expenses in the near future, but everyone is left to wait and see if any of that is true.

Whatever the reasoning, there are now issues that have already and will continue to spawn out of this.

Black just started a feud with Big E. With the Dutchman gone, who is the former intercontinental champion going to work with?

Murphy was a reliable hand and, at age 32, had youth on his side. How does a company build for the future if it keeps releasing young talent before it matures?

Strowman's absence takes one of the biggest athletes on the roster out of WWE. It also removes a former world champion as an emergency talent to fill a gap, as he did in replacing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 36.

Garrett made an appearance in this year's women's Royal Rumble match and could have filled a gap on the main roster, but she had made little progress in NXT since joining in 2019 and never got another chance.

Lastly, the departures of Lana and Riott leave two empty spots in an already-depleted women's division. Their exits also take two tag teams out of the mix, leaving even less teams to contend for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships.

Replacing a Main Eventer, an Upper-Midcarder and a Midcarder

Credit: WWE.com

Strowman, Black and Murphy have the tools to succeed in any other promotion, but WWE, for whatever reason, didn't know what to do with them.

Now, the roster is missing a main event star, someone who was almost at that level, and a guy who was stuck as a supporting player.

Raw and SmackDown need one-to-one replacements, if not more to compensate. If budgetary measures were the reason for last week's cuts, the only solution is to pick from NXT, as WWE doesn't appear to be in the market to spend big on major names.

One guest appearance by Brock Lesnar at a show like SummerSlam is good for the short term, but won't compensate for the lack of The Monster Among Men in the long haul. The replacements will have to be reliable and worthwhile names who can appear regularly.

Raw needs a top babyface to challenge Bobby Lashley, and Finn Balor is the best candidate to fill the void as he's relatively fresh after his stint in NXT and is a former world champion.

Tony Nese and/or Oney Lorcan could slip into Murphy's position. They've hit a wall in NXT, where they're just spinning their wheels. Both are reliable in-ring workers with potential.

Big E can't move on to feud with Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins—the only two heels on SmackDown he hasn't interacted with much since going solo—because they're busy with other stories. He needs another path to open up.

Roderick Strong could be a great addition to work with The New Day man on SmackDown after "resigning" from NXT in April.

3 Less Women in an Already-Depleted Division

Credit: WWE.com

Lana and Riott were staples of Raw and SmackDown, respectively, as halves of tag teams in the women's division.

Considering Alexa Bliss barely wrestles, Eva Marie has yet to fully appear, Lacey Evans is on maternity leave, Becky Lynch hasn't returned, Sonya Deville is an authority figure and Mia Yim is nowhere to be seen, there aren't many women across the main roster.

The only tag teams left are Natalya and Tamina, Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose, and Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, who appear to be splitting up. Unless you count Bliss and Lilly the puppet, who can compete for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship?

The main roster needs an influx of women's talent—now. Unfortunately, WWE will likely turn to NXT to bring up too many, which will result in the black-and-gold brand's women's tag team division becoming obsolete.

WWE never should have created another set of titles without an adequate number of Superstars. Now, it's time to rectify that by unifying the WWE and NXT women's tag team titles and make them true cross-branded belts as they were originally intended to be.

Aliyah and Jessi Kamea of The Robert Stone Brand, Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart, The Way, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez and other pairings being able to compete on Raw and SmackDown would show off new talent and freshens things up.

Io Shirai must join the main roster. She's done all she can do in NXT, and either brand would be lucky to have her competing for its women's championship.

Toni Storm could use a call-up, too. She had a run with the NXT UK Women's Championship and if she's not going to be NXT women's champion any time soon, why not have her face Asuka, Charlotte Flair, Bayley and others on Raw or SmackDown?

Learn from These Mistakes and Prevent Them from Happening Again

Credit: WWE.com

How does WWE Creative have any influence over not being suddenly left in the lurch by more sudden departures? Like most relationships, the key word is "communication."

The writers must have a stronger bond with management so these calls can be made in sync. If the company hierarchy plans on firing people, it needs to let the writers know.

Another preventative measure, which is a running theme with most flaws in WWE these days, is that all parties need to think ahead of time about where things are heading and develop backup plans.

People get injured, plans change and new ideas come up all the time, but it often seems WWE can't focus on what's happening on the night of a show, let alone in the coming weeks.

This leads to inconsistencies, repetition, go-nowhere stories and Superstars left looking all the worse for it.

It's time to create a depth chart. Every roster should have a list of bankable ready-made wrestlers at its disposal.

At the end of the day, the top priority for WWE Creative needs to be the wrestlers. They are the reason people watch—not deals behind the scenes that can add a few extra dollars toward overall profit margins.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.