Sources told https://fightfulselect.com/ that on the day of the mass releases, WWE approached numerous talent and asked them to take pay cuts in order to remain with the company. Several of them that we heard about were given two days to make that decision.
So it wasn’t just New Day.
If it were Cardona, I wouldn’t completely blame him, on the road with WWE at half pay is still on the road with his wife, I’d rather be with my spouse than passing them in the night on non-tour days.
Yet, I disagree it was him, I lean way more into it was Miz. Miz always wanted to be in WWE, his whole thing on Real World was wanting to be a WWF wrestler. He took shit from the locker room nobody should because he wanted it so bad, WWE made him a ton of money, gave him fame far beyond what MTV did, and led him to his wife, he genuinely seems to enjoy his ambassador stuff he does for them, the elbows they help him rub with are a bonus that helped him get the Gladiators thing, I just think the evidence is more Miz centered than Cardona.
I’ve also seen it speculated it could be Sami Zayn and/or LA Knight. They were both poised to get pushed to the moon within the last year, but WWE never pulled the trigger on either of them and let them slide back down the card.