Former NXT Tag Team Champion Duke Hudson has confirmed his WWE departure with a cryptic video on X, styled as a podcast titled Wrestling With Identity. In the vignette, Hudson has a brutally honest conversation with himself:
Hudson Version 1: Welcome to Wrestling with Identity. Do we have a name for you, or us yet?
Hudson Version 2: I don’t know.
Version 1: Alright, well let’s get straight to the point. You’ve been fired, which might be breaking news to a lot of the people here. I don’t think I’ve seen anything online. You weren’t part of a group with ‘budget cuts,’ right, so this really was more of a ‘we hate you’.
Version 2: Yeah.
Version 1: Now that the cat’s out of the bag, how do you feel about wasting 6 years of your life in that building?
Version 2: I wouldn’t say it was a waste.
Version 1: Come on. Think of everything that happened in your time there. You and Bronnie (Bronson Reed), for example. You started at the same time, you came up in Australia together. Now he’s jumping off the top of cages at Survivor Series, and you’re being written off TV again. Rhea (Ripley), for example. She is a megastar. She grew up watching you wrestle in Australia. You love telling people that story. Well, they overtook you. Your time was wasted.
Version 2: I can be happy for my friends and be disappointed in my own shortcomings at the same time.
Version 1: Come on. You’re free now, you can say whatever you want to say. Don’t just stick to what you learn in media training. Tell me what you want to say.
Version 2: I don’t know.
Version 1: I’m not done with you. We’ll be right back.
You can watch it below:
On to the next chapter. pic.twitter.com/NR2XbUJg1C
— Duke Hudson (@sixftfiiiiive) February 4, 2025
