WWE: Erik Suffers Foot Injury, New Round of Staff Layoffs, Braun Strowman on Career Future

Viking Raiders’ Erik Suffers Foot Injury

This past Friday’s SmackDown show featured SmackDown announcer Michael Cole revealing that Erik of the Viking Raiders recently suffered an injury.

Cole stated that Erik suffered a foot injury during his Viking Rules tag team match against the New Day on the September 2nd episode of SmackDown. Cole also stated that Erik is currently expected to be out of action for an “indefinite period of time.”

The cause nor severity of Erik’s injury was not revealed.

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WWE Reportedly Laid Off Portion of Marketing Department

WWE reportedly recently laid off some of their office staff, according to Wrestlenomics.

Brandon Thurston reported that his sources stated that WWE’s marketing department was hit with a wave of layoffs on Friday. These same sources reportedly stated that multiple people at the Vice President level were let go by the company. Thurston speculated that this was likely done as part of the current restructuring by WWE for that department.

I'm told there were layoffs today to WWE's marketing department. Multiple people at the VP level were let go. Possibly a part of a restructuring to that department. EVP Catherine Newman was hired this summer as the new head of marketing.

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) September 17, 2022

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Braun Strowman on Career Future: “I will never wrestle for anyone other than myself or WWE”

A recent episode of the WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves podcast had Braun Strowman as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Strowman’s thoughts on the talks he had with other companies during his time away from WWE this past year.

“We talked to everybody, people reached out about stuff and I kind of played around with the ideas. I always said in interviews, and people thought I was stupid for it, I said I would never put on a pair of boots for anybody besides WWE and I stuck to my word. I never put on another pair of boots, I went out and started my own thing, worked for myself, gave young talent a place to come and work, make a living, hone their craft inside CYN. Like I said, I stuck to my guns, I will never wrestle for anyone other than myself or WWE and here we are, the monster is home.”

Strowman also gave his thoughts about his release from WWE in June of 2021.

“I honestly needed a break. Nine years with the company at that point basically in the driver’s seat of a Ferrari doing 200 miles an hour for nine years straight, everything’s just blowing by you, tunnel vision. Now, I have this opportunity to step outside the bubble of the business and go ‘holy s**t, I have done a lot of stuff.’ In five and a half years, I’ve literally beaten everyone there is to beat in WWE, I’ve won every title except the US Championship, I’ve main event’ed every pay-per-view, I’ve sold out every building on this Earth, you name them, I’ve been in the ring with them.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com