Three WWE stars were released from their contracts ahead of last week’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.
Baron Corbin, Tegan Nox and Indi Hartwell have now left the company, with the breaking news catching many in the wrestling world off-guard.
It has been reported that Corbin was told his deal wouldn’t be extended when it lapses.
Meanwhile, Nox and Hartwell will become free agents able to wrestle elsewhere in the next 90 days.
The release of Corbin, who had a 12-year run with WWE, came as a particular surprise to many fans.
While he hasn’t been a regular feature on TV since jumping from NXT to SmackDown, he has been working in a tag-team with Apollo Crews since July.
The pair didn’t win any of their three televised matches, but some fans had hopes they would grow into title challengers.
WWE were still using Corbin behind-the-scenes, too.
Fightful reported that he was one of several wrestlers who attended a Netflix commercial shoot just days before he was informed his contract wouldn’t be renewed.
On Monday, Corbin confirmed the report on X, writing: “That is a fact.”
From January 2025, Netflix will exclusively stream WWE Raw as part of a $5 billion, 10-year deal.
Shortly after responding to the report, Corbin also shared a message to his fans.
“Just want to let everyone know I see all the messages and tweets,” he wrote on X.
“I appreciate it more than you know. It [definitely] helps!”
Nox and Hartwell, who also left WWE last Friday, also shared statements.
“Some things are just out of your control and you can only do as much as you can. Let’s clear one thing up though. I’m ready. I’ve been ready. Just have to show people what they’ve missed,” Nox wrote on X.
The Welsh star, who has now changed her X username to Nixon Newell, also shared a poster with the words, “Nixon lives on” and captioned the post “90 days…”
Hartwell, meanwhile, shared a short statement, which read: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
