10 WWE Talents Released After SmackDown, Fightful Reports

The ten include WWE Speed champion Jasper Troy, Evolve women's champion Wendy Choo and a referee signed in 2022.

Ten people under WWE contract were released after SmackDown on Friday, September 4, 2026, among them a referee and two performers who never had an official match. Bleacher Report published the ten names, crediting the report to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com. WWE hasn't put out a list of its own.

Two of the ten were signed athletes who never got a bell. Ellen Akesson, a powerlifter and arm wrestler from Sweden who won the 2024 Western European Powerlifting Championships, and Marcus Brown, a bodybuilder, were both assigned to the WWE Performance Center and neither wrestled an official match, Bleacher Report reported.

The ten, with what each was doing when the cut came:

• Jasper Troy — WWE Speed champion and the men's winner of "WWE LFG" Season 1.
• Wendy Choo — Evolve women's champion, with matches on NXT and Evolve.
• Ellen Akesson — powerlifter and arm wrestler; Performance Center assignment, no official match.
• Marcus Brown — bodybuilder; Performance Center assignment, no official match.
• Adriana Rizzo — NXT from 2022 to 2025, on television with the D'Angelo Family, later a ringside interviewer on Evolve, with repeated injuries along the way.
• Zena Sterling — with WWE since 2023, trained at the Performance Center, NXT live events plus screen time on LFG and Evolve.
• Anya Rune — titles in six different promotions and Evolve appearances in 2026, including a women's title qualifying fatal four-way.
• Braxton Cole — Season 3 of LFG, Evolve, and NXT house shows.
• PJ Vasa — a former rugby player who debuted on Evolve.
• Gary Wilson — a referee signed in 2022 who worked NXT and later SmackDown.

It's the year's second batch. The first was announced on April 24, shortly after WrestleMania, and the names Bleacher Report listed from that wave included Kairi Sane, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews, Bo Dallas/Uncle Howdy, Nikki Cross and Joe Gacy — six names against Friday's ten, which puts at least 16 people out of contract in 2026 by the outlet's own count.

The developmental brands did most of the carrying here. Seven of the ten have Evolve or LFG credits attached to their names, and four of those never appeared on WWE's main-roster television at all.

The audience noticed before the company said anything. "WWE roster cuts" ranked among California's most-searched terms on Friday.

Two of the ten never wrestled an official match. For Akesson, that means the last title on her record is a powerlifting championship from 2024.

Source: bleacherreport.com, retrieved September 5, 2026.