WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon 'Adamant' Against Having No-Cut Clauses In Performers' Contracts

Vince McMahon, WWE's chairman and CEO, is not a fan of having no-cut clauses in his performers’ contracts.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful first disclosed the news via their Patreon-based podcast, Fightful Select.

“We're told that the subject of no-cut clauses was broached and that several people of influence within the company were open to that, but eventually talent was told it isn't negotiable or something WWE was willing to utilize in their deals at this point. Specifically, Fightful has learned that Vince McMahon had been adamantly against it,” reported Sapp.

For the better part over the past year and a half, WWE has been cutting superstars left and right from the roster, all in the name of budget cuts.

Performers included on that lengthy list are the likes of: Braun Strowman, Andrade, Aleister Black, Bray Wyatt, Karrion Kross, Keith Lee, Nia Jax and John Morrison.

This year alone, WWE released 80 superstars from its contracts this year alone and 51 performers in 2020, bringing the grand total of cut superstars to 131.

In light of WWE’s sudden release policy, major players from NXT like Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly, along with indie darling and WWE main roster star Daniel Bryan, have opted not to re-sign with the company which allowed them to immediately jump ship to rival promotion AEW once their contracts expired.

From a purely business standpoint, McMahon’s hesitations with having no-cut clauses make sense since WWE can immediately release talent that the creative team has no plans for in the long term or simply did not pan out in the eyes of the fans.

From a talent’s perspective, the lack of job security may turn them away from aspiring to become a WWE superstar since having a no-cut clause allows them to perform at their best without worries that they will be removed from the roster a few weeks later.

Whether the rumors are true or not, it cannot be understated that WWE does enjoy having that fluidity of being able to alter its roster at a moment’s notice in order to give other superstars who the organization thinks the fans will enjoy watching on weekly programming.