Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:59 PM EST

As confirmed last Friday, WWE cut six more wrestlers from the roster including Stevie Richards, Colin Delaney, The Highlanders (Rory & Robbie McAllister), Cherry and referee Wes Adams. According to a report by The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a majority of these cuts had again to do with the addition of new talent to the main rosters from the company's Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory.

In regards to the Stevie Richards release, he had always been described as a hard worker, but it has been clear for years that no matter how hard he worked that he would be stuck at a certain level for the rest of his career. He generally always helped Shane McMahon over the years when he would return to the ring by helping him get back into shape. Richards was always said to be praised by WWE agents for his work at house show events, but was never a "favorite" among creative because he would come up with ideas (something they usually like), but he reportedly got aggressive about telling people ideas and rubbed them the wrong way. He also never shook the "ECW" label in the eyes of many who looked at him as a minor leaguer as many ECW talent were never looked at as huge stars. It should be noted that Richards had prepared for a release from WWE for years and was well prepared if it had ever gone down.

As for the release of Colin Delaney, he had signed a three-year deal a few months ago, but never got over as the character they wanted him to be (ala Mikey Whipwreck) on the ECW brand. His heel turn on Tommy Dreamer fell flat and the opinion was that they did all they could with the character. He was already back in the ring working an indy show last Friday.

The release of The Highlanders was a combination of many things. First there was the incident in Orlando during WrestleMania weekend when Robbie showed up at the live TNA Impact taping and was shown on camera. He was disciplined by WWE over the matter and was in trouble ever since. They also didn't want to cut one or the other with Rory out with an injury. They initially were praised during their early WWE run by people like Ed Koskey and Fit Finlay. Rory issued a statement on his MySpace page noting he had no regrets, but wished things had turned out better and put over John Laurinaitis. He credited WWE for having a better living lifestyle now than he did before and acknowledged from day one that their gimmicks would be hard to break out of if if they ever did.

Cherry's release surprised many as she was getting wins on TV and appeared to be getting over with the WWE crowd after she was split from Deuce and Domino. She reportedly was never a favorite of the key people within the company, with many saying she wasn't thin enough to be a WWE Diva and simply got a spot on the main roster because everyone like the Deuce and Domino gimmick.

WWE releasing referee Wes Adams was considered by many as being the victim of circumstances. Adams was the referee on ECW two weeks ago in the match between John Morrison & The Miz vs. Mark Henry & Matt Hardy on August 12 that had a screwed up finish. The plan was for Miz to save Morrison after a super side effect, but Miz missed his cue and Morrison suffered a flash knockout from the bump. Morrison ended up trying to kick out at the last split-second when he realized Miz wasn't coming in to break up the pinfall. Adams still counted the pinfall and did his job as all WWE referees have been instructed to call every match as a shoot. When he ruled the match was over, things didn't look good on TV and you could tell everyone was confused. Many within WWE noted it wasn't Adams' fault as he was regarded as a nice guy and a scapegoat for this incident. He is now taking on bookings as a wrestler on the indy scene.