Image: WWE

Bronson Reed heads up the latest list of WWE NXT talent that have been released — a list of twelve talents that broke Friday night as WWE SmackDown was still on the air.

The 32-year-old Reed had been with WWE since 2019 and won the North American title earlier this year, holding it for just over a month. Reed tweeted, “Just got released by WWE. This monster is back on the loose … you don’t know WHAT you’ve just done.” and tagged AEW, Ring of Honor, Impact and New Japan.

Former two-time NXT Tag Team Champion Bobby Fish was also released. The 44-year-old was part of the popular Undisputed Era faction that included Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong that broke up this year. Strong defeated Fish this week on NXT TV.

Other talents that were released include:

Mercedes Martinez
Leon Ruff
Tyler Rust
Jake Atlas
Ari Sterling
Kona Reeves
Zechariah Smith
Asher Hale
Giant Zanjeer 
Stephon Smith
Denzel Dejournette (Desmond Troy)

Most of the releases were reported by Fightful and PWInsider.

This is the latest round of cuts in what is becoming a regular occurrence for both the WWE main roster and NXT.

Last weekend, Bray Wyatt was released while Ric Flair reportedly asked for and was granted his release several days later. In June, WWE cut both main roster and NXT/205 Live talents like Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Ruby Riott, Fandango, Lana, Tyler Breeze, Tony Nese and others. Those followed ten April cuts (Samoa Joe, Iiconics, Mickie James, Chelsea Green and others) and eight May cuts.