Another One (Actually 8) Bite(s) the Dust

"Happy Thanksgiving, you're fired."  I'm sure that's probably not how the conversation went Friday, but four WWE Superstars, two divas, a referee, and a member of the creative team were all "wished well in their future endeavors" by the company.

The E seems to do a house cleaning like this a couple of times a year.  And to be honest, I'm not overly shocked by the choices they made this time around.

Me & Jillian Hall at Wrestlemania 26

Of all the people released, I'd say Jillian Hall surprised me the most.  True, she hasn't been on TV in quite a while.  I'm not even sure when her last match or appearance was.  She seemed to have a pretty good gimmick that got heat.  I'll be curious to see if she ends up in TNA, especially since her gimmick in the WWE was to spoof Hulk Hogan's daugther Brooke.

Got to meet Jillian briefly at Fan Axxess at this year's Wrestlemania.  She was nice and didn't sing, which I appreciated.

Sorry to see her go, as it looks like the company is really lacking in the heel diva division.  I think now it's just LayCool and Alicia Fox, right?  Hopefully Jillian finds something else, because like I said, I think she played the annoying heel character very well.  That is a compliment and not an insult.

Vance Archer aka Lance Hoyt was hardly used at all after splitting with his partner Curtis Hawkins.  While I wasn't a big fan of either guy, I think the E is lacking tag teams and they could have at least tried to make these two work together and develop into something.  Same goes for Caylen Craft who was one half of the "Dudebusters."  And for that matter Luke Gallows.  I thought the Straight Edge Society had a ton of potential, but for whatever reason the group was split up.  I've talked before that they do that a lot with teams/factions these days.  I wonder how much longer the Nexus will be around.

Shad of Cryme Tyme fame was also let go.  This one was a little surprising.  And I only say that because I'm surprised his former partner JTG wasn't the one who was let go.  I thought with the booking they were going to make JTG the "Jannetty" of the team.  I would suspect he won't survive the next round of cuts.

Referee Aaron "Goose" Mahoney is gone too.  Not to sound mean, but I didn't recognize his picture when I looked him up.  I guess I don't pay as close attention to the officials as I should.  There are a few I recognize.  Smackdown! creative team member Chris DeJoseph was the only behind the scenes guy let go.  Not sure what his background was, but personally I think more guys (and gals) with wrestling experience should be making the creative decisions.

Money Inc. & Tiffany

Finally, diva Tiffany was released too.  With her recent arrest and all the talk about it, I wasn't shocked over this one.  I'm curious to see how much longer her husband Drew McIntyre sticks around.  Will it affect his status with the company?  Will he want to stay?  Only time will tell.

I think Tiffany simply got lost in the diva shuffle. She's a cookie cutter diva.  Nothing really set her apart from the others.  Again, we met her at Wrestlemania as you can see.  Nice woman.  Very pretty.  I'm sure she will move on to other opportunities.

With the infusion of younger talent on the show and all the NXT guys getting signed, or at least most of them, I think more talent will be cut in the coming weeks/months.  On the watch list:  JTG, Darren Young, Michael Tarver, Yoshi Tatsu, Joey Mercury, and Curtis Hawkins.  I'm also going to throw Alex Riley on that list, simply because of his recent DUI arrest.  I know others have been busted before, but it seems with all the recent media scrutiny, the company isn't screwing around.  If he's not released, I would suspect he'll face some form of punishment over the next few months.

Again, to those who were released, best of luck in your future endeavors.