McKenzie Mitchell's WWE Release Surprised Shawn Michaels

WWE recently came to terms on the release of McKenzie Mitchell, with the NXT backstage correspondent cut in early December.

Mitchell’s release was one of many from backstage and corporate roles in WWE following the merger with UFC under the TKO umbrella, and on the NXT Deadline pre-show media call, Shawn Michaels admitted his shock at Mitchell’s release:

“McKenzie is always going to be a part of the NXT family. It obviously took me by surprise as well, my understanding is that there are some areas where we have overlapping jobs and there were going to be changes. There are a lot of things that go on in this company that are way above me, and this was obviously one of them. Like we always say, the door is always open in the WWE, I think that, in my opinion, McKenzie will always be a part of the NXT family and it doesn’t mean that we can’t revisit that relationship down the road. Obviously, it’s a loss to us in NXT, but the machine, as always, has to continue to roll on and we will obviously do that and miss her greatly because everybody absolutely loves and adores McKenzie," Michaels said.

H/T: Fightful