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June 12th, 2014 is a day many WWE fans remember as Black Thursday. A lot of fans consider the day to be a dark one in the history of the company as 11 people including 9 Superstars and Teddy Long were released from the company.
The reason behind the releases
2014 was a difficult year for WWE, financially speaking and the releases look like a purely financial decision. The Network was still in its infancy and WWE had struggled to make up revenue from PPV's.
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The Superstars released
Curt Hawkins
Aksana
Evan Bourne
Brodus Clay
Camacho
JTG
Yoshi Tatsu
Teddy Long
Marc Harris (Referee)
Over the years, a number of Superstars who were released on Black Thursday have spoken about how surprising the news had been.
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Drew McIntyre had the following to say soon after his release in 2014:
To be honest, it was a bit of a shock, a big bit of a shock. You know, however, or whatever anyone thinks about 3MB or myself and my wrestling ability we were on everything fulfilling a role. They felt that I shouldn't be filling it at the time, I guess, in their opinion. And we were on literally everything, so, yeah... To say it was a surprise was a very accurate statement.
"No, (I had) absolutely zero indication (I was going to be released). We were working as hard as we could in the position we were in to do the best that we could with every situation presented to us. Considering, I think we did a pretty good job for what they were asking of us.
In a Reddit AMA later that year, Evan Bourne aka Matt Sydal revealed that WWE had fired him via fax. However, Bourne later stated in an interview that he had no hard feelings towards the WWE as they had helped him finish his rehab from injury before letting him go.
How many made it back to WWE?
From the names released on Black Friday, 3 Superstars are back with WWE today. Drew McIntyre is a former NXT Champion and looks set to have a bright future in WWE.
Jinder Mahal returned to become a WWE Champion.
As for Curt Hawkins, following his legendary losing streak, he's now one half of the RAW Tag-Team Champions.
