Recent WWE Releases Changed NXT Plan At The Last Minute

Card subject to change. NXT has been shaken up in a big way as of late and some of those changes have come out of nowhere. There have been multiple instances of wrestlers being released in a hurry and that has changes things all over the place. Those changes seem likely to continue in the near future and it turns out that one of them messed with an established plan.

According to Fightful Select, Ariya Daivari was scheduled to face Cameron Grimes on the June 29 NXT. Ari Sterling took Daivari’s place and lost the match, as Daivari had been released just before the match. Despite Sterling wrestling as a heel on 205 Live, he was turned into a babyface for the match as Grimes needed to face a heel to further his babyface push. Sterling was then released by WWE in early August, along with several others.

What could have been. Check out Sterling’s time in WWE, including the Grimes match:

Cameron Grimes vs. Ari Sterling: WWE NXT, June 29, 2021

Ari Sterling vs. Samir Singh: WWE 205 Live, May 7, 2021

Ari Sterling vs. Tony Nese: WWE 205 Live, May 14, 2021

Opinion: This is one of those stories that shows you how messy things are in WWE. NXT had a plan for a match but WWE did not bother trying to figure out the plans before releasing someone before they could even have the match. Sterling and Daivari were not major stars in the company, but you would think that a simple phone call asking “Hey is this person doing anything?” shouldn’t be that hard.

What do you think of the releases? How can these changes hurt WWE? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 60,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 6,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

Keep up with the LATEST WRESTLING RUMORS! Click here to sign up for the exclusive Wrestling Rumors daily newsletter, delivered right to your inbox.