Our long, national nightmare is over.
Professional wrestler Mason Ryan, who you may remember from his brief run as CM Punk’s muscle in the New Nexus or from his lengthy stint in NXT, has been released by WWE. Future endeavored, however you’d like to put it. Ryan most recently appeared on last week’s episode of WWE NXT in a losing effort against Tyson Kidd.
Whenever WWE stars get released, the Internet jumps to their defense. “They didn’t use him right!” “They didn’t know how to use him!” I’m not an insider by any stretch, but I’m pretty sure Mason Ryan was only being kept around to be a vague approximation of Batista, and with Actual Batista returning to the company, the writing was on the wall. Ryan never seemed to improve, and in an era increasingly dominated by guys like Daniel Bryan, The Shield and Bray Wyatt, Ryan’s type might finally not be seen as the “ideal.”
Here’s a clip of Ryan’s main roster debut, if you need to put a giant pile of muscles with a name:
In addition to Ryan, WWE also released:
– Shaul Guerrero, aka Raquel Diaz, the daughter of Eddie and Vickie Guerrero. She was on her second developmental run, but hadn’t been brought back to television. “The daughter of Eddie and Vickie Guerrero” brings with it certain expectations, and I guess she never filled them. She was most recently seen in a photo of NXT’s Baron Corbin, trying out a new motorcycle gimmick.
– Oliver Grey, former tag team partner of current NXT Champion Adrian Neville. Grey was jokingly known as “wrestling’s Hugh Grant,” and recently returned from injury to lose a quick match to Camacho.
– Danny Burch, another British guy who never really did anything or went anywhere. When he’d show up, William Regal would go on and on about how tough he was, but he never seemed to win wrestling matches.
We’ll keep you updated on any further releases.
