Andre Chase is not acting like his WWE exit came out of nowhere.
While speaking with The Wrestling Classic, Chase opened up about being released by WWE and admitted he was not exactly stunned when the call came. The former Chase U leader had already been stuck in a weird creative spot, and by his own words, things had slowed down a lot.
Chase explained that the newer version of Chase U was already falling apart before WWE let him go. Uriah Connors had moved into Birthright, Kale Dixon had his own direction, and Chase was sitting there without a real lane. When asked if the release caught him off guard, Chase kept it honest.
“It wasn’t — it didn’t surprise me. I wasn’t surprised, if that makes sense. Sometimes I just wasn’t doing anything at that point in time creatively. Uriah had just left and joined Birthright. Kale was going to do his thing, and then it just kind of left me in limbo.”
That limbo is a big part of the story. Chase U had already gone through its major run in NXT, and the next version of the act never really got off the ground the way it was supposed to. Once that happened, Chase was left without the same TV presence that made him one of NXT’s most unexpected success stories.
Chase also said WWE had a coaching role in mind for him from the very beginning. That was not new. He said the company offered him a coaching job when he first came in, and near the end of his run, he was already helping out at the Performance Center.
“There had always, again, when I first got hired, they initially offered me a coaching job as well. So I kind of think the idea was always, okay, even if he wrestles for a little bit, eventually we’ll kind of put him into a coaching job.”
Chase said he enjoyed helping younger talent, but that did not mean he was ready to hang up his boots. He was still a wrestler, and he wanted to keep going.
“My last six months there, I was Coach Brooks’ assistant coach. I was helping him with class a lot. I was teaching the young kids, which was something I enjoyed. But again, it always felt like it’s one or the other. It didn’t feel like I could do both, and I just wasn’t ready to stop wrestling yet.”
That says a lot. WWE may have seen Chase as someone who could slide into a coaching role, but Chase clearly still had more left in the tank. After years of turning Chase U into a real NXT act, he did not want his in-ring career to end while he was stuck on the sidelines.
Chase’s WWE run may be over, but he is already moving forward as Andre Chance. The man went from being told he was not supposed to be on television to becoming a multiple-time NXT Tag Team Champion, so betting against him now probably is not the smartest move.
What do you think about Andre Chase saying his WWE release did not fully surprise him? Should WWE have kept him around as a wrestler instead of steering him toward coaching? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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