Roderick Strong has debuted for AEW in a shocker after leaving WWE.
Strong showed up on the April 26 Dynamite, helping Undisputed Era ally Adam Cole. Strong had been off WWE TV for months, and WWE had been dead silent about his status with the company. The last we'd heard, there was discussion about pitching the idea of having him coach through the remainder of his deal, though we don't know if that pitch ever made it to him.
Strong re-signed with WWE in 2021, and the company was set to make him the focal point of a re-vamped NXT Cruiserweight division in which they had big plans to enhance. However, when Triple H fell out of power with the brand, those plans changed significantly. Much of the same happened with the Diamond Mine stable that he headed up. Originally it was to include Arturo Ruas and Strong's wife Marina Shafir, but both were released by the company. Instead the team changed significantly, with Stokely Hathaway, Hideki Suzuki and Tyler Rust all also being released.
In 2022, Roderick Strong asked for his WWE release, which we're told was initially rejected. However, those that we spoke to in WWE say that they believed his deal was to run into next year, though that's hardly confirmed.
Recently, 2K was told to exclude Roderick Strong from the game. WWE talent that we spoke to had not been given an update by WWE about his status or lack thereof with the company, and we'd simply been told he'd not been at the WWE Performance Center in quite some time. About the only update we had from those close to him of late was that he was doing well physically and cleared to wrestle.
AEW talent we spoke to were pleasantly surprised, as Strong is well liked by most in the industry.
Fightful had actually followed up a day before Strong's debut and WWE sources said they hadn't heard of any change in his status. He was not pulled from the website or some internal rosters before his debut, which was puzzling to many in the company.
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