News broke on November 1 that WWE had released five NXT Superstars, cutting Bodhi Hayward, Sloane Jacobs, Erica Yan, Damaris Griffin, and Ru Feng from the roster. The releases marked the first of the new regime’s era and the first batch of WWE releases since April 29.
The releases were seemingly due to a “lack of progression”, as per Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio broadcast. Given that none of the five competitors had been on NXT programming for more than two years – Damaris Griffin had only contested four matches overall, for instance – this reasoning is more than justifiable.
NXT Superstar’s Lack Of Commitment Got Him Released
For Bodhi Hayward, however, it appears there may have been more to his release than meets the eye. Dave Meltzer elaborated on his departure from the sports entertainment giant, explaining how Hayward’s apparent lack of commitment to his work led to his release:
“All the people who were dropped, the main reason was lack of progression. They [WWE management] felt that they were not improving fast enough. That’s going to be the case. They’re gonna be cutting people at the six-month mark, at the one-year mark, and things like that, if they’re not progressing at a certain level. And anyone who doesn’t get to TV within two years will probably be cut. So we’re gonna get regular developmental cuts.
But with Bodhi Hayward, he was the one where it was more than that. They didn’t like the work ethic, and they didn’t like that he was late for shows, and didn’t show up at shows or something.
The primary reason for everyone was lack of progression, but for him it was a little bit more than that. It had to be enough to overcome the fact that he was actually in a storyline that was a long-term storyline, and that the crowd liked him, which is always a good sign. You wanna keep guys that have a good look and the crowd likes. But it was not enough in their minds for him.”
Bodhi Hayward was a favourable member of Andre Chase’s Chase University alliance. Outside of one live event outing, he last competed on NXT’s September 20 broadcast, as he and Chase bested Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams.