WWE: Issues Leading Up to Bray Wyatt’s Release, Carmelo Hayes Update, December Tour Schedule

More on Bray Wyatt’s Release from WWE

As noted before, WWE released Bray Wyatt this past July. The reason given for his release was officially claimed to be due to “budget issues” while unofficially it was due to a growing rift backstage over the creative direction for his Fiend character.

Andrew Zarian reported in a recent episode of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast that his sources within WWE stated that besides creative differences, there were other issues behind-the-scenes that contributed to Wyatt’s eventual release from the company.

These reportedly included Wyatt becoming a little difficult to work with backstage, WWE officials issues with the quality of his performance in the ring, WWE officials issues with his weight, and Wyatt being generally unhappy backstage during this time period.

---

More on Carmelo Hayes NXT North American Championship Victory

This past Wednesday’s episode of NXT featured two NXT North American Championship matches. The second match involved Carmelo Hayes cashing in his title shot contract against Isiah “Swerve” Scott for the North American title, which was won by Hayes.

Fightful Select reported that their sources within WWE stated that Hayes had been impressing influential officials in both WWE’s NXT brand and Performance Center since this past Summer. Among those impressed included Shawn Michaels who reportedly had taken an interest in Hayes and was considered to be his “project” by many within NXT. One high level NXT source stated that they believe Michaels currently views Hayes as someone who he sees a lot of himself in.

In regards to the North American title change, it was reported that it was done to help establish a new star for NXT’s revamp and to protect Scott’s star status on route to his official main roster call-up.

It was also reported that NXT officials originally had big plans for Hayes for their Cruiserweight division as part of their revamp plans for the division but decided to go in a different direction for him following the recent wave of mass releases.

---

WWE Announces Full Events Schedule for December’s Post-Holiday Tour

WWE recently announced their full schedule of house show events for their post-holiday tour for the month of December.

Post-holiday schedule of RAW brand events:

• December 26th – WWE Live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York
• December 28th – WWE Live event at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• December 29th – WWE Live event at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, Canada
• December 30th – WWE Live event at Place Bell in Montreal, Canada

Post-holiday schedule of SmackDown brand events:

• December 26th – WWE Live event at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida
• December 27th – WWE Live event at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida
• December 28th – WWE Live event at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC
• December 29th – WWE Live event at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland
• December 30th – WWE Live event at Keybank Arena in Buffalo, New York