Regarding the departures of Devin Taylor and Cal Bishop, the belief is that they were likely in the developmental system for too long without showing major improvements in the ring and with WWE bringing in a new crop of NXT talents who were recently signed (Biff Busick, Asuka, etc.) they had to make some cuts.
Taylor had been signed for two years. As an interviewer never really found her niche and ironically, the best she looked on NXT TV was the Adam Rose introductory vignette where she played the interviewer who ended up falling under the spell of Rose’s partying ways. Bishop, a former NCAA All-American heavyweight wrestler, had been in the system for several years.
The word backstage at NXT this week was that Leva Bates, who portrayed Blue Pants, has completed her run and likely won’t be used anytime soon. Bates was never signed to the company but was used on a regular basis when her character got over as a cult thing on NXT TV. The word is that she often made comments that ruffled the feathers of the roster the wrong way, but it was never something she did maliciously as much as she made mistakes by speaking outwardly about how over she was and things of that nature. Since her role was to help others get over, some of the workers didn’t take kindly to it. WWE was not selling Blue Pants merchandise at the NXT events over the weekend.
