BREAKING NEWS: WWE has come to terms on the releases of WWE Superstars Darren Young and Summer Rae. https://t.co/CU8R144QG2
— WWE (@WWE) October 29, 2017
This is the surprise news of this Sunday night, as WWE released 3 wrestlers today, and not the ones we’ve been hearing of for a few weeks. If Summer Rae suffered from a neck injury, she has been cleared since May and never came back to a WWE ring. Darren Young was back on the road on WWE live events after suffering from an arm injury he sustained in January. He was alongside The Miz, Enzo Amore and Becky Lynch to promote WWE during a NBA match between the Los Angeles Clippers and The Detroit Pistons yesterday night. The most surprising release is Emma’s, as she was still wrestling on RAW last Monday against Asuka, in a rematch of their TLC confrontation.
All 3 of them are products of WWE developmental system, NXT. The oldest version for Darren Young as he was apart of the first season of NXT, Pros and Rookies version, that lead to the creation of The Nexus. When the stable dismantled a year later, Young took part of NXT Redemption, the fifth season of the show that morphed into the NXT program currently aired since 2012.
Darren Young and his tag team partner Titus O’Neil moved to SmackDown where they became serious contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championships. The Prime Time Players by the end of 2013, a short time after Darren Young made his coming-out. At the beginning of 2014, Young and O’Neil feuded for a little while until Young underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee.
He came back the following year on RAW, reunited with Titus O’Neil and the two became RAW Tag Team Champions by defeating The New Day at Money in The Bank 2015. The Prime Time Players disbanded by the end of the year and Bob Backlund agreed to be Young’s life coach, in a campaign to “Make Darren Young Great Again”. The duo lasted a few months until Young suffered an arm injury while teaming with Sin Cara in a match against The Shining Stars last January.
The former Lingerie Football League player signed with WWE in November 2011. She debuted a month later on FCW as a ring announcer. A few months later, she even became the General Manager of the developmental brand. She made her in-ring debut in April 2012 in an elimination Triple Threat match against Sofia Cortez and Paige.
When FCW was rebooted as NXT, Rae went on to become a ring-announcer, she officially started on NXT in January 2013, attacking Paige. She quickly emerged on RAW as the dance partner of Fandango. Her solo career was not one of the most successful, she also became the valet of Rusev and Tyler Breeze.
She has not appeared in a WWE ring since August 2016. She was cleared by WWE doctors last May but never came back. She appeared in “The Marine IV”, WWE movie franchise starring The Miz, and made a name of herself in seasons 2 and 3 of Total Divas where she was displayed as a mean and devilish woman in and out of the ring.
Emma involved herself in the Australian wrestling scene, starting training at 13 and working for PWA Australia at 16. She moved to Canada at 19 to train with Lance Storm in Calgary. She worked for SHIMMER, ECCW, PWA Queensland and Melbourne CIty Wrestling in the Australian, Canadian and American independent scene until WWE signed her in 2011.
She debuted only a year after, because if a shoulder injury, and quickly became a fan favourite with her gimmick of smiling clumsy dancer. She failed to become the first-ever NXT Women’s Champion the following year. She was moved to the main roster in 2014 to ally with Santino Marella.
When Marella officially retired from the rings, Emma stayed on the main roster without much success. She asked to come back to NXT in 2016, stating “her tenure on the main roster was not working out.” She found her partner in Dana Brooke and the two quickly became involved in a feud with the newcomer Asuka. Emma and Asuka confronted at NXT TakeOver: London in December 2015.
She came back on the main roster in March 2016, quickly followed by Dana Brooke, but sustained a back injury that required surgery and a few months of hiatus. From October 2016 to February 2017, her comeback was announced every week on TV, but never happened, even if Emma was back in WWE house shows as a guest referee.
After a new load of promos announcing her comeback, she appeared on RAW on April 2016 but was back on the sideline the month later due to a shoulder injury. She came back a month later, had various feuds until her recent PPV return at No Mercy and TLC. Emma opened WWE PPV TLC last Sunday against Asuka and the two had a rematch on Monday episode of RAW. Nobody could imagine at that time it would be her last match with WWE, Emma included as her recent tweet let think.
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— TENILLE DASHWOOD (@TenilleDashwood) October 29, 2017