The WWE has been on a tear over the last few months as in 2021 they released roughly 40% of their roster mainly for budgetary reasons, and could be next.
Yes, he recently signed a new contract, and yes, he’s a mainstay for the last twenty years but he also makes an estimated $4.5 million yearly with PPV and merchandise sales, and royalty bonuses added in according to sportskeeda.com.
That’s a hefty salary when it looks like there’s only three above him since Lesnar’s contract ended.
But there’s another reason Orton could be on the release list.
Mounting evidence
Randy Orton has been missing from WWE TV since he lost his Money in the Bank Qualification Match on June 21, and was then reportedly put on the WWE’s disabled/inactive list.
This could mean he was injured and needed some time to heal or took some time off or was given time off. The injury could be the best possibility, though we’re sure that’s another list.
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But more than that, as of June 30, he was scheduled to return on August 2’s Raw in Chicago. In fact, the adds continued to pop up since then so there really wasn’t any reason to expect him not to be there.
But then he wasn’t.
Here’s where it gets juicy. Bray Wyatt was scheduled to appear on Raw on August 9 and was told he was released for budgetary reasons and he reportedly make $3 million less than Orton.
But what really caught our attention were various reports after Raw that claimed a big name requested their release and it’ll be granted on August 3 some time during the day.
Other possibilities
There’s every possibility this is wrong and it won’t be Orton, and some rumors say it’s Alexa Bliss and others say Charlotte Flair.
Neither of those make sense, but Orton does.
One possibility that stands out is AJ Styles.
By all accounts, Styles is happy working for the WWE. But on Raw, Omos went solo against Riddle and we don’t remember him ever going solo without someone around him in some capacity.
It may be something as simple as Styles having the night off, but give the circumstances, it’s an interesting time frame.
Still, he is one half of Raw’s tag team championship team and we doubt he’d request a release.
Of would he?
What do you think about Randy Orton being on the list of potential releases? Let us know in the comments below.
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