The fallout from the latest round of cuts

Today is April 24, 2026, and the atmosphere in Stamford is noticeably thinner. PWInsider reported earlier this morning that WWE releases are officially underway. This is the traditional post-WrestleMania inventory check, but it feels different this year.

The creative team is staring down a massive gap in programming. With Backlash just 15 days away, losing contracted talent now is a gamble. Fans usually expect a refresh, but wholesale departures two weeks before a premium live event create significant booking holes.

The Backlash lineup feels thin

The card for May 9 is currently lacking depth. We are seeing a reliance on main-event magnets while the mid-card talent pool is actively shrinking. If you lose your workhorses on the undercard, the show structure collapses into just a few long, drawn-out title bouts.

I am looking for clear replacements for the roles vacated by today’s roster changes. If the promotion relies on the same thirty people until June, the matches will lack the verticality and pace we expect from a top-tier brand. Scaling a brand requires keeping deep talent, not cutting for quarterly margin optics.

Tactical incompetence in booking

Here is where management is failing: you cannot release talent and keep the product dense. Every time a performer is cut, you strip away the history of a feud or a potential tag team pivot. It is poor long-term planning to trim a roster just before building into the summer residency.

The current state of the mid-card looks stagnant. We need fresh blood from the development ranks, not an empty locker room. If I am the booker, I am sweating the logistics of ensuring we have enough competitors to fill a three-hour card without repeating the same matchups from last month.

Prediction for the post-purge era

My call? Backlash will suffer from pacing issues. Without the bench strength to flesh out the undercard, we are headed for a show defined by filler segments and extended video packages rather than in-ring action. Management is betting on the top-tier stars to carry the weight alone, but that strategy has a breaking point. It is a shortsighted move that will dilute the product quality by the time we hit the summer cycle.