World Wrestling Entertainment has ended its relationship with Deep South Wrestling. For the past two years, DSW has served as one of WWE’s developmental territories. The move had been rumored for months and following a contentious relationship that saw Deep South Wrestling’s Jody Hamilton lash out at WWE for removing Bill Demott from his position as trainer. Hamilton quickly removed the negative comments that had been posted online about Demott’s removal, but it was a public sign of the friction that had been brewing between WWE and Hamilton.
According to several sources, WWE made the decision to sever ties with Jody Hamilton’s Deep South Wrestling after a number of issues the company wasn’t happy with in recent months. When Bruce Prichard visited the developmental territory last week, he brought back a negative report, which was said to be the final straw in the situation. WWE sent someone down to DSW to oversee the split from their end today. Nothing has been settled yet as to what will happen to the WWE developmental talents that were assigned to DSW. Some will be sent over to Ohio Valley Wrestling, while it’s also possible some may be released due to the glut of talent. There’s also a chance some may be brought up to the main rosters to fill out the existing brands.
On the heels of the announcement by WWE that they had ended their developmental deal with Deep South Wrestling, the television taping scheduled for Thursday night has been cancelled. The Deep South Wrestling website has removed all links and the only information on the site is the brief announcement that the Thursday taping has been cancelled. There are rumors making the rounds that either King Booker’s PWA in Houston and/or Steve Keirn’s school in Tampa, Florida are in the running to replace DSW as an official WWE developmental division, but I am told that everything is still very much in the air and nothing has been settled.
