Another round of releases offers us a rare chance to look at the talent already on the main roster and determine some long lessons learned by these releases.

Last week, WWE released 18 talented performers, an move that was alarming to many when added to all of the releases that have happened over the last two years. It’s just one of the jarring moves made by WWE in recent memory, along with multiple trips to Saudi Arabia, completely changing NXT seemingly overnight, hiring Adnan Virk as a Raw commentator, and many more.

But the releases are different, and THIS round of releases is different from all of the others. The two biggest reasons are Keith Lee and Karrion Kross, but it’s much deeper than that. Let’s take a look at the Top 5 Lessons Learned From The Latest WWE Releases.

5. The Devil You Know Is Better Than The Devil You Don’t

Let’s set aside Keith Lee and Karrion Kross for a moment, because I see them as special cases.  Once they are set aside, take a look at this specific selection of talents just released:

• Ember Moon
• Oney Lorcan
• Franky Monet
• Harry Smith
• Mia Yim

What is special about these 5? Along with Karrion Kross and Keith Lee, they represent a group of modern-day midcarders that could help fill out any WWE card. While some were in NXT, moving them to the main roster would slot them right in the lower-to-middle card.

Who else is in that spot? Let’s take a look at Smackdown, and remove the most recent call-ups/debuts:

• Naomi
• Shayna Baszler
• Natalya
• Kofi Kingston
• Xavier Woods
• Baron Corbin
• Jeff Hardy
• Drew Gulak
• Mace
• Mansoor
• Mustafa Ali
• Shinsuke Nakamura
• Rick Boogs
• Sheamus
• Cesaro
• Erik
• Ivar
• Ricochet
• Angel Garza
• Humberto Carrillo
• Sami Zayn
• Jinder Mahal
• Shanky

The Smackdown midcard is already stacked with talent. There is zero reason to add to the mid-card. In fact, if you’re going to add to the midcard, you’re going to have to eliminate some folks along the way. I personally love Oney Lorcan, but on the main roster he is an unknown. Cesaro is a known commodity, he got a huge WrestleMania singles win this year, and a pay-per-view main event against Roman Reigns, the biggest star in the company. I personally think Franky Monet has unlimited star potential. But they have Natalya, and they know what they have in Natalya. No guess work, no seeing if she can get over.

The Smackdown mid-card is stable–and the others listed coming to the main roster would be unstable. No need, in WWE’s mind, to shake it up like that.

4. WWE Isn’t Recruiting–Or Developing–For The Midcard

I’ve seen the argument online that “not everyone needs to be a leading man/woman,” and that is 100% true. But that argument is used to support keeping certain folks around, usually a personal favorite of the person writing the tweet, post, or article. So I have to immediately dismiss it.

While not everyone needs to–or even can be–a leading star, WWE isn’t in the business of developing midcarders. They don’t have to. If they evaluate and develop everyone to be a top level star, the midcarders will simply happen. They either happen via the booking cycle (Kofi Kingston) or by virtue of not having what it takes to be a top star (Sami Zayn). Kingston and Zayn are positive contributors to the company, and to the shows they are on. Both could end up in the Hall Of Fame (one is already a surefire member the moment they retire), but they aren’t Roman Reigns. If the company focuses solely on building the Roman Reignses and Becky Lynches of tomorrow, the midcard will be just fine, populated with those who got a shot and didn’t quite cut it.

3. Triple H Wasn’t Supposed To Build NXT Into The Third Brand

I love NXT. Absolutely love it. Prior to the rebrand, NXT was consistently the best wrestling show on television, dating back to it’s coming to prominence on the WWE Network. NXT was selling out arenas for Takeovers, including a million dollar gate during WrestleMania 35 weekend.

Triple H deserves all the credit in the world for building NXT into what it was–arguably the best wrestling brand in the world at its peak. But unfortunately for HHH, and so many of us, that’s like proving a mastery of math concepts… on an English exam.

Simply put, Triple H did a great job on the wrong assignment. His job wasn’t to build a third brand–it was to build a developmental show to build the main eventers–and midcarders–of tomorrow. That and that alone was the job. Everything else was ancillary, and eventually unnecessary.

2. WWE Didn’t “Sign Too Many Wrestlers”

And this isn’t a “they’re not wrestlers, they’re sports entertainers” argument, either. The statement that WWE signed too many wrestlers shows a high level of ignorance towards the WWE talent development strategy. You need talent in the building to see who works. Gone are the days of signing former world champion Curt Hennig away from the AWA, making him Mr. Perfect, and having him stand out from Day One.

In fact, success anyplace other than WWE rarely means anything anymore. That’s why WWE needed so many people in developmental. If you’re looking at 100 plastic Easter eggs, and two of them contain $500 each, would you have a better chance of finding the $500 if you can open 10 eggs, or if you can open 75 eggs?

That’s the WWE developmental model. They needed as many eggs as possible to find their money stars. As Tony Stark once told us, “If you want to make an omelet, then you have to break some eggs.” The omelet represents the stars that made it to the main roster and stuck. The broken eggs? They got released last week.

“But Greg, if they needed so many people in developmental, why did so many get released?”

That’s the flip side to this point that many won’t understand. Look at the main event scene right now:

• Universal Champion Roman Reigns
• WWE Champion Big E
• Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair
• Raw Women’s champion Becky Lynch
• Sasha Banks
• Bianca Belair
• Seth Rollins
• Edge
• Drew McIntyre
• Seth Rollins
• Kevin Owens
• Finn Balor
• Bayley

Twelve names are on that list. And 8 or 9 of them aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I didn’t even mention AJ Styles or Randy Orton, top guys standing at the ready when needed.

The point? The main event scene is set for the next couple of years. WWE has more time to develop stars with a diverse background, as they have time before they need to be on top. The next Roman Reigns might not even be in NXT yet, they might be on a football field somewhere. Or it could be Bron Breakker, who is 24 years old–12 years younger than Roman Reigns, who has been on the main roster for 9 years. Could you see Bron Breakker on the main roster in 3 years, making an impact and being built into the next major star? If you can’t, you’re blind.

The point here is that they have time to develop coal into a diamond, and they don’t need a surplus of talent to find the diamonds. They’ve identified their diamonds, they can cut the coal.

Will they eventually load up on coal? Absolutely. But there is a flip side to that: AEW. AEW signed a TON of independent talent, effectively competing with WWE NXT for young talent. In 2-3 years, some of that talent will be gone from AEW, and available to WWE. This current developmental signee strategy isn’t permanent–nothing is.

1. The Fans Are Going Through The Trauma Of Being Wrong

It’s not the same level of trauma as a life changing incident or other life experiences. But for many fans, this is traumatic.

Here’s the key to the trauma: they realized that they really don’t know WWE at all. They think they know, but in the end, they are absolutely clueless. Clueless is great for the casual fan, but for the hardcore, smart fan, it’s a deal breaker. As a smart fan, you want to know, or feel like you know. That’s why you read the dirt sheets, and scour Twitter. That’s why you’ll believe rumors–because if they are true, and you know about them, then you are smart to the business!

Except you don’t know even a small fraction of what you think you know.

Here’s the proof:

• Keith Lee
• Karrion Kross (and Scarlett Bordeaux)

Like plenty before them, both Keith Lee and Karrion Kross (along with Scarlett Bordeaux) were viewed as “can’t miss” prospects by the IWC fans. There’s no way this can get screwed up, right? Those guys are WrestleMania main eventers waiting to happen!

Dead. Wrong.

Kross portrays a persona and character that is simply impossible for the modern day fan to believe. I’ve said it before–he’s a legitimate bad ass in real life who can’t portray one on television. One of the most truly talented fighters in a wrestling ring couldn’t make me believe anything he was doing. In WWE, Kross always came off as “playing wrestler” to me.

Keith Lee is similar, and also a victim of circumstance due to his medical issues. But much like Kross, Keith Lee is immensely talented and can stand out in any wrestling company in the world. But WWE isn’t wrestling, it’s sports entertainment. And Keith Lee couldn’t stand out in the world of sports entertainment. And any argument you can make to the contrary involves WWE changing it’s strategy on talent development and usage–why would they do that?

This might be too much to swallow for true purist wrestling fans. Your guaranteed can’t miss prospects? They missed. You were 100% wrong. And that is a tough pill to swallow. It makes you question everything you think you know, everything a dirt sheet taught you.

Because when it comes to WWE, we literally know nothing. And accepting that can only lead to enjoyment of the product. Lets’ enjoy WWE, together!