Mojo Rawley Reveals Real Reason He Left WWE

Former WWE Superstar Dean Muhtadi — known to fans as Mojo Rawley — has finally peeled back the curtain on why his wrestling career with WWE came to a sudden halt, and it wasn’t about creative frustration or a lack of opportunity. It was long COVID.

On The Rule Breakers Podcast, Muhtadi opened up about the true cause behind his WWE exit, revealing how a severe and long-lasting COVID-19 infection destroyed his physical ability to continue wrestling.

“My time with WWE kind of ended pretty nasty. I got COVID really bad. Um, was on the shelf for a year, I think, before we kind of cut ties and and moved on. But, you know, I kind of got out and I could barely breathe, couldn’t work out. I mean, I definitely couldn’t wrestle indies or call AEW or or anything like that. So, um, I did still want to wrestle at the time.”

Muhtadi said he made several attempts to return but his body kept shutting down unexpectedly — and WWE wasn’t sure how to respond.

“I kept hitting up WWE and it was like, ‘Hey, I think I think I’m getting close.’ And then they, you know, start to entertain the conversation of how we going to bring you back and then it was—I’m out again. So in my mind too I was like, ‘Man, they probably think I’m faking it,’ cuz nobody knows what this thing is and it makes no sense why this is happening.”

Even the nature of the illness was unpredictable, leaving him unable to make commitments.

“You’d have really good days where you feel normal and then boom—you wake up and you just can’t breathe. And it stays like that for two, three days.”

Mojo Rawley was officially released from his WWE contract in April 2021, after more than eight months of inactivity on television. While his absence at the time sparked rumors of creative issues or a quiet phase-out, the truth was far more serious — he was silently battling long COVID, and WWE never publicly addressed the circumstances behind his release.

Dean’s departure from WWE wasn’t a choice — it was the result of a serious health issue that left him sidelined and misunderstood. While many assumed he simply faded away from the spotlight, the truth is, he was fighting for his health behind the scenes.

Now focused on building his agency and forging a new path, Muhtadi’s journey is a reminder that sometimes the real battles are the ones fans never see.

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