Reason Duke Hudson Was Released by WWE

Duke Hudson’s WWE run is officially over, but the real surprise is that it actually ended back in January.

WWE quietly released Hudson, and word is just now getting out. One thing is certain—Triple H didn’t see him as a major player, which ultimately led to his departure.

Hudson, who originally debuted as Brendan Vink, got his first WWE shot in 2019 at an NXT house show before moving to TV in 2020. He briefly appeared on Raw alongside Shane Thorne and even caught the attention of Paul Heyman. During Heyman’s creative run on Raw, he saw Hudson’s potential, but it didn’t take long for Vince McMahon to pull the plug.

“He had a good babyface comeback. I was a little surprised, but this is the deal. He’s 34 years old. And I think the decision was essentially that we’ve had him in developmental for what’s it been, six years? And we just don’t think he’s, you know, he had his one shot on the main roster,” Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Heyman had plans for Hudson, thinking he could develop into something bigger. Heyman saw a lot in him. He saw a big guy, good look, moves. Well, he wasn’t ready, but Heyman thought, you know, if you remember, when Heyman started on the Raw thing, his big thing was to bring in all kinds of new guys and push and push guys who hadn’t been pushed before. And you know, the idea was, the ratings are going to go down, and in a year, 18 months, whatever, once these guys get over, it’ll be all fresh, won’t be stale, and they’ll be it’ll be a younger crowd and a younger audience.”

That didn’t sit well with McMahon, who cut the experiment short. “Duke was, you know, a guy he tried with for, like, three weeks, and then Vince got the three-week thing. And it’s like, ‘Nah.’ And that was that, and he was gone,” Meltzer added.

Fast forward to today, and even though Vince is out, Triple H still wasn’t convinced Hudson had main roster potential. “Now, of course, Vince is gone, so it doesn’t matter, but you know, [Paul ‘Triple H’] Levesque is the one who makes the calls, and for whatever reason, you know, he didn’t see Duke as a main roster guy. So at some point, when you’re, you know, when you’re 34, and you don’t see him as a main roster guy, and he’d been there for six years, it’s kind of like that’s the way it works.”

Hudson had his moments in NXT, including winning the NXT Tag Team Championship with Andre Chase in 2023, but in the end, that wasn’t enough to keep his WWE career alive.