Paul London Released

by Jack Windham
November 7, 2008

In a move that has been anticipated for months now, Paul London has been released by WWE.

Paul London Released

In a very simple message from the official WWE website earlier today, it was revealed that Paul London had been released from his contract.

Paul London managed to last a little more than 5 years in the company, winning the cruiserweight title and the tag team titles.

The fact that WWE combined his release statement with the release statement of another wrestler (Chuck Palumbo) makes him seem even less significant.

Backstage Heat

Rumors of Paul London's release has been around for quite some time now.

The former WWE Cruiserweight Championship had drawn the ire of Vince McMahon after he was caught smiling on camera during the infamous "exploding limo" storyline.

It was during the scene where the wrestlers were lined up backstage as Vince McMahon walked through on his way to his limo.

Since then, many wrestling fans were simply awaiting the release of Paul London.

Fuel to the Fire

The rumor mills began churning even more in June of this year when WWE decided to split up Paul London and Brian Kendrick in the draft lottery.

While Brian Kendrick was moved over to Smackdown with a singles push, Paul London was left on Raw to flounder around.

It seemed like only a matter of time before WWE wished him well on his future endeavors.

However, Paul London was still able to collect some pretty nice paychecks from WWE over the next couple of months.

The Hold Up

Many people believe that the reason why WWE took so long to release Paul London was because the company was afraid that he would jump over to TNA.

Paul London, who worked for TNA and ROH prior to coming to WWE, would make an excellent addition to the highly entertaining X division.

His in-ring skills are as good as the likes of Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles. In 2004, he was named the Most Underrated Wrestler by the Wrestling Observer.

Once Paul London is contractually able to work elsewhere, TNA would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn't contact him to gauge his interest.

Closing Thoughts

This is one of those situations where the release isn't a sad thing because a talented in-ring worker is finally going to get a change of scenery.