Canceled Plans For Released WWE Stars Revealed

It was a possibility. There have been all kinds of WWE releases over the course of the year so far, as dozens of wrestlers have been let go from the company. This has been quite the shakeup as wrestlers who have been with the promotion for quite a long time are now gone. Some of them never got much of a chance, and now we know what kinds of plans some of them were factored into.

According to Fightful Select, Arturo Ruas and Marina Shafir, both of whom were released from WWE earlier this week, were considered to be part of the new Diamond Mine stable in NXT. Ruas was told he would be part of the group until the middle of June before plans were changed. Shafir was going to be the group’s female enforcer, though it was not known when she would debut. The Diamond Mine, consisting of Roderick Strong, Hideki Suzuki and Tyler Rust with Malcolm Bivens as their manager, debuted on June 23.

Ruas, also known as Adrian Jaoude, signed with WWE in 2015 and spent time in Evolve. He appeared on Monday Night Raw as part of Raw Underground but he only wrestled actual matches on Main Event. His most recent match took place on the November 18 NXT. Shafir is a former UFC fighter and one of the Four Horsewomen of NXT. She mainly teamed with Jessamyn Duke, with her last match coming in a first round loss in the 2021 Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic on the January 27 205 Live.

What could have been. Check out the Diamond Mine’s debut and its potential members:

Cole brawls with O’Reilly, Diamond Mine takes out Kushida: WWE NXT, June 22, 2021

Marina Shafir makes her NXT Live debut

Kushida vs. Arturo Ruas: WWE NXT, Nov. 18, 2020

Opinion: This does have me interested, both in what might have been and what could be. WWE only introduced the Diamond Mine less than a week ago and there is already the chance that more names could be added later. Shafir and Ruas could have been good additions to the team and now I’m curious about who might be added to the group in the future.

Would these plans have worked? Who else should join the Diamond Mine? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

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