Mercedes Martinez: WWE Told Me I Was Released Due To Budget Cuts, But I Know It Was Something More

Mercedes Martinez has detailed getting the phone call from John Laurinaitis telling her she had been released from her contract with WWE.

Martinez was one of a number of WWE NXT and 205 Live talent who departed WWE in early August after having their contracts ended. 

While Martinez doesn't put any of the blame with Laurinaitis for telling her she'd been let go, she believes there was more to the decision - such as impending reboot of NXT - than just the 'budget cuts' cited.

Speaking to DNC Digital, Mercedes said: "I ended up in Daytona and my truck broke down. It was 8 o’clock at night I’m like 'man, waiting for a tow truck’ and I get this phone call and I didn’t recognize the number at all.

"It was a 203 number, so I’m like, ‘Alright, Connecticut.’ My family’s from Connecticut, I get spam calls from Connecticut, I was like, ‘Whatever.’ I didn’t even pay attention to it. I get a voicemail on it and then I get a text, saying, ‘Hey, this is John Laurinaitis, can you give me a call?’ And I looked at that, I already knew.

My heart was like, ‘There it goes.’ I was like, ‘So my truck is broken down, I’m getting fired, alright, let me just make this phone call. I made the phone call and of course they’re gonna tell everyone, basically it’s budget cuts. I’m not gonna sit here and lie. They’re like, ‘Due to budget cuts, you’re getting released.’ I was like, ‘Alright, cool. Thanks.'

"He was doing his job. He had to do what he had to do, but for me it was like, ‘Okay, here I am, I just got cleared to wrestle. I was just going into a program and then now I’m getting released. So to me it’s not budget cuts. Something more'.

"I know they’re going into a new direction, I know they’re changing things at NXT so I knew it had to be more but they’re going to tell me the easiest way out without hurting my feelings. There’s just nothing creatively that you can do with me to up my game already cause I’m already at that level. I’m already at that level. I’ve always been at that level so it was what it was.

"Did I take a couple of days kind of to milk that? Yeah. Did I cry? Of course I did. I was a big b*tch. I was a baby, man."

H/T WrestleZone