Reports of WWE talent cuts that began Friday night have continued into Saturday, and you can add three more wrestlers to the list. According to PWInsider, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have been released by WWE; the news was later confirmed by Fightful, who reported that Giovanni Vinci had been released as well. They join Isla Dawn,Blair Davenport, Sonya Deville, the Authors of Pain,PaulEllering, and Cedric Alexander, who were also cut over the weekend Fightful claims sources within "WWE NXT" believe the releases are related to an upcoming crop of main roster call-ups from the developmental brand.
Notably, Anderson is out with an injury with a torn labrum and rotator cuff; he had surgery in November and used the word "indefinitely" in a December interview before setting a return expectation of "at least six or seven more months." Fightful gave his recovery time as "at least 3-6 months minimum" and noted that Anderson is "in good spirits" despite the highly unusual practice of being released during injury rehab. Neither Gallows nor Vinci had wrestled thus far in 2025 in fact, both men's most recent match was against each other in an untelevised contest ahead of the December 13 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
Anderson and Gallows returned to WWE in 2022 following Vince McMahon's ouster from his position as head of creative and replacement by Paul "Triple H" Levesque; their first WWE run had come to an end in 2020 when WWE released them during the COVID-19 pandemic. They spent the majority of 2024 on the "NXT" roster. Vinci had been with WWE since 2017 after entering the company as Fabian Aicher via the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament. He would go on to become a member of GUNTHER's stable, Imperium, on "NXT UK," winning the NXT TagTeam Championship with Marcel Barthel, now known as Ludwig Kaiser. When the rest of Imperium was called up to the main roster in 2022, however, he remained in "NXT," re-debuting with a new character under the name Giovanni Vinci.After Levesque took creative control of WWE, Vinci was reunited with Imperium (though he kept the new name) and was part of the act until being kicked out in 2024. A short-lived attempt to revive the originalVinci gimmick resulted only in Vinci taking a few quick losses, and Fightful's sources "believe he was pushed down the card with them knowing he wouldn't be brought back."
