RADICAN’S TAKE: Kairi Sane’s departure from WWE brings about several questions about WWE decision making

Kairi Sane’s release truly surprised me when the post-WrestleMania list of cuts were revealed on Friday. It is never a good feeling to see so many talented performers lose their jobs. The news of the WWE roster cuts comes out the same week TKO released compensation figures for its key executives. It was not great timing, to say the least. 

Trimming the roster is a nasty and necessary part of the business for any major league wrestling company. When it comes to some of the main roster cuts, I am surprised since a lot of the acts that were were part of ongoing storylines on TV. Usually when I see names cut from the main roster in WWE, I’m not surprised. 

My lack of surprise doesn’t usually come from the wrestler who is cut lacking ability, but instead it is because they aren’t fitting in well or just aren’t being used at all on WWE TV. The most surprising cut this round was Kairi Sane. Sane has been involved in a long-term storyline that has overlapped several major programs in the Women’s Division with Asuka manipulating her to keep her on her side during her feud with Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley.

I was looking forward to seeing a resolution to this storyline. I wanted to see Sane get a chance to work as a face and potentially form a unit with Sky and Ripley. After months and months of Sane staying loyal to Asuka, the angle never concluded on TV. 

WWE usually does a good job of wrapping up storylines for wrestlers with expiring contracts, so it will be interesting to find out whether or not Sane was released or did WWE allowed her contract to expire. TKO executives and certain board members haven’t been shy about getting involved in changing the direction of WWE storylines. 

TKO president Nick Khan is someone Paul Levesque clearly trusts based on the text messages that have come out from the Janel Grant lawsuit filed against WWE, Vince McMahon, and John Laurinaitis alleging sexual assault, trafficking, and physical and emotional abuse from 2019 to 2022. I’m interested in exactly how the decision to let Sane go was made.  Was Levesque making the decision to cut or not renew Sane and the other wrestlers cut? Did he have help making the decisions with the from Khan? Did one of the top TKO executives or a powerful board member step in and call for her to be cut? 

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It isn’t just Sane I have these questions about. Aleister Black and Zelina Vega seemed like a surprise too, as he was interacting with various wrestlers backstage and was reportedly going to be involved in the Randy Orton storyline. (Note: PWTorch editor Wade Keller said on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show on Friday that his sourcing disputes that Black was ever going to be revealed as the mystery caller).

It sure feels like a lot of these cuts weren’t planned  and/or expected on the surface. Even the Wyatt Sicks were recently featured as a big part of the Smackdown Tag Team Division and had a regular role, albeit not a great one on Smackdown. It seemed WWE was on the verge of striking the right balance of horror and wrestling with the act, but now the whole stable has been cut. 

I hope these questions will be answered in the coming weeks as to why some of these puzzling decisions were made to cut talent that was doing well on TV, especially in the case of Sane who was part of a compelling long-term storyline. As for the talents released, hopefully they are all able to put their heads down and continue to work hard and find new places to work as soon as possible. 

(Sean Radican has been Pro Wrestling Torch for over 22 years. He has covered the independents, ROH, and NJPW in-depth over the years in addition to also watching all the major promotions in the U.S. PWTorch VIP members get access to his weekly Radican Worlwide podcast looking at a variety of news topics from the past week and then an in-depth Go-Home segment with a guest on a big topic of the week. You can contact him at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. You can follow him on X @SR_Torch and on Bluesky @SeanRadican.)