Ridge Holland Claims WWE Left Him in the Dark Before Release

Ridge Holland is opening up about what really went down during his final year in WWE—and according to him, the silence from management was deafening.

While speaking out about his injury and release via Busted Open Radio, Holland revealed that despite constantly pitching ideas and asking for feedback, no one ever told him what he needed to improve. The former NXT and SmackDown star explained that once he was pulled from television, he tried to take initiative. He pitched creative ideas, including a best-of-five series with Yoshiki Inamura, and kept checking in with coaches and producers to get some clarity. But each time, he was told everything was fine.

“I asked the questions. I said, ‘Is there anything I need to work on?’ When I got taken off TV, I was asking. I was pitching ideas. One of the pitches was for me and Inamura to do a best out of five series. I pitched few things, and I kept asking, ‘Is it my promos? Is it my work? What do I need to do? What have I done wrong?’ And everyone just says, ‘No, everything is fine.’ I’m like, I ain’t stupid.”

The situation only got more strange when a coach at the WWE Performance Center asked him—completely out of nowhere—whether he had “put any feelers out.”

“I remember walking into the training center one day and a head coach pulled me over and said, ‘Hey, have you put any feelers out anywhere?’ This is out of the blue. I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, you know, creative’s not had your name mentioned.’ And in my head, I’m thinking I can’t play any feelers out. I’m under contract.”

Holland said the conversation rattled him, and he later circled back with the coach to press for answers—hoping for at least some transparency if his future was in doubt.

“I went, ‘You kind of upset me a bit. Do you know anything? I think that the relationship that we have, I think you should let me know if you know anything, if the writing is on the wall.’ He was like, ‘No, no, no. Don’t know anything. Just because creative hasn’t really brought your name up recently.’”

For Holland, it felt like the writing was on the wall—but no one was willing to admit it. And by the time WWE officially let him go, he had gone months without direction, communication, or clarity on what they wanted from him.

This kind of story isn’t new for fans who’ve followed how WWE sometimes operates behind closed doors, but hearing it directly from Holland—while he’s also battling through injury and post-release stress—makes it land differently.

Ridge Holland’s experience shows how confusing and isolating life can be in WWE when the system stops prioritizing you, even before your contract is up.