WWE Black Wednesday Releases 5 Years Later - Where Are They Now?

WhatCulture Wrestling

Sports & Recreation, Wrestling, Sports

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On April 15, 2020, WWE's infamous Black Wednesday saw the sudden release of dozens of wrestlers and staff as part of sweeping pandemic-era budget cuts — but where are they now? In this video, we track the post-WWE careers of major names like Rusev, Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona), EC3, and Drake Maverick, exploring how these former WWE stars rebuilt their legacies across AEW, Impact Wrestling, and the independent scene. Join us as we revisit Black Wednesday and uncover what happened to the wrestlers who were let go.

ENJOY!

@SimonMiller316

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Transcript

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0:25.7	18 plus gamblerware.org.
0:31.5	April 15th, 2020 was a bad day for professional wrestling.
0:36.2	Because a bunch of WWW wrestlers did get released.
0:39.3	And given the timeframe, it just didn't feel right.
0:42.3	I know they're a business, they can do whatever they want, and these things are always going to happen.
0:45.3	But of course, we were in the midst of a global pandemic.
0:48.3	Just before this, WWE had released their reports and they were doing record business.
0:53.3	So once again, something didn't add up.
0:56.0	Somehow we are half a decade removed from then though, which is absolutely terrifying.
1:00.0	As we do get to the five year anniversary of that fateful day, I thought it would be nice to sit down and go through all these wrestlers and figure out what they're doing right now.
1:09.0	We do want to point out we're going to talk about the people that were active in the ring
1:12.0	because, of course, a bunch of other people got released as well.
1:15.0	But more power to them, I hope they're doing all right.
	...

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