Former NXT Tag Team Champion Duke Hudson has been quietly released from WWE, with Fightful Select confirming his release took place in January, though the news is only now emerging.
Hudson, who joined WWE in 2019, last competed at an NXT house show in November 2024 and hadn’t appeared on TV since. Throughout his NXT tenure, he underwent multiple character shifts, starting as Brendan Vink before adopting the Duke Hudson persona, known for his cocky poker player gimmick.
His most notable run was with Chase University, teaming with Andre Chase and Thea Hail, contributing to the faction’s popularity.
Despite being a regular on NXT programming, WWE released him without providing an official reason.
According to the Wrestling Observer, Triple H didn’t see Hudson as main roster superstar, which is why he was let go:
“He had a good babyface comeback. I was a little surprised, but this is the deal. He’s 34 years old. And the decision was essentially that we’ve had him in developmental for what’s it been, 6 years? And we just don’t think he’s, you know, he had his one shot on the main roster, (Paul) 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.
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 it’ll be a younger crowd and a younger audience because remember, at the time. Yeah, they were doing sh*t with younger viewers. I mean, that’s where AEW was beating them.
So that was, like, the goal. And Duke was a guy he tried with for, like, three weeks, and then Vince (McMahon) got the three-week thing. And it’s like, ‘Nah.’ And that was that, and he was gone. And I think once that happened. Now, of course, Vince is gone, so it doesn’t matter, but (Paul ‘Triple H’) Levesque is the one who makes the calls, and for whatever reason, he didn’t see Duke as a main roster guy.
So at some point, when you’re 34, and you don’t see him as a main roster guy, and he’d been there for 6 years, it’s kind of like that’s the way it works.”
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