The WWE let go of a slew of talent recently, largely on the women's side, and just weeks after WrestleMania 42 went down in Las Vegas. Former United States Champion Zelina Vega was one of the more shocking releases, and now that she's gone, she's sharing how disappointed she was during and after her brief as Women's United States Champion.
Vega became the second-ever superstar to hold the women's U.S. Championship after defeating Chelsea Green in a title match on SmackDown. She held the title for sixty-three days, with only one successful title defense against Green before she lost to Giulia. Following her release, Vega shared on Twitch how she felt about the run when prompted by a fan question in the chat (via @WrestleMovement):
I didn't like it, I didn't like it. Because I wanted to do so much more with that. I asked, and begged, and pleaded, and screamed; I wanted that title to be the workhorse title.
Like most athletes who take hold of a WWE championship belt, Vega expected she'd get more television time and title defenses while in the spotlight. Instead, she was more of a transitional champion to make way for rising star Giulia to hold the glory. Though Tiffany Stratton is the current champion, Giulia still holds the longest streak for days with the title.
The 2026 TV schedule wasn't great for Zelina Vega, who, outside of appearing in the Royal Rumble alongside 29 other women, only had one other televised match on SmackDown. Vega continued to talk about what she pitched for WWE, seemingly hoping to emulate what Dominik Mysterio did with the Intercontinental title:
I wanted to take that title to Japan, whether that was with Marigold or Stardom. I wanted to take it to AAA in Mexico. I wanted to defend it, and actually defend it obviously, to get it more seen and known and have this title be what it's supposed to be. Unfortunately, that never happened,
Clearly, the WWE never saw Vega as a long-term champion, but she doesn't seem to have been let in on that knowledge at the time. Now, on the other side of being released, she may better understand why creatives weren't receptive to seeing her go jet-setting across the world to pump up the United States Championship.
I once talked about how the WWE had the most talented roster its had in years, so much so that it couldn't justify giving them all television time. It seems the solution for that was to cull its talent, as Vega was not the only superstar who was released from the company. Check out the full list:
- Zelina Vega
- Aleister Black
- Kairi Sane
- Santos Escobar
- Uncle Howdy (Bo Dallas)
- Joe Gacy
- Dexter Lumis
- Nikki Cross
- Erick Rowan
- Motor City Machine Guns
- Apollo Crews
- Zoey Stark
- Alba Fyre
- Andre Chase
- Dante Chen
It's a staggering amount of cuts, especially on the heels of AJ Styles' retirement and Brock Lesnar's alleged retirement. One would think the company letting go of those two legends would open up the purse to retain more talent, rather than release more people.
WWE's latest string of releases comes after the company struggled to sell tickets for WrestleMania 42, to the point it became a part of the creative storytelling. Fans only became more concerned when it was alleged that TKO CEO Ari Emmanuel made the executive decision to insert Pat McAfee into the main event, in an attempt to draw additional interest. Zelina Vega alleged the call to terminate her came from TKO's offices, rather than the WWE home office (via The Ring Report).
It raises interesting questions about who is truly running WWE right now, and I'm eager to see more on what's happening between the wrestling organization and its parent company. That starts with checking out Monday Night Raw with my Netflix subscription and seeing if any superstars have much to say about the recent releases.
