More on Roderick Strong Leaving WWE, Backstage Reaction In AEW

As previously reported, Roderick Strong is now All Elite as he signed with AEW and appeared on last night’s Dynamite. In the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that very few knew that Strong’s WWE contract was expiring and most did not.

Fightful Select adds that WWE had been silent about his status in the company and the last update was that there had been talks of making him a coach at the Performance Center for the rest of his contract. It’s unknown if he was ever made aware of that idea.

He signed a new deal with WWE in 2021 and at the time, was set to be the focal point of a rebooted NXT cruiserweight division. Eventually, Triple H lost control of NXT and those plans changed, as did plans for Diamond Mine when several names were released (including Arturo Ruas, Marina Shafir, Stokely Hathaway, Hideki Suzuki and Tyler Rust). Strong asked for his release last year and it was initially denied.

Sources in WWE believed that the deal was supposed to go until 2024, but that hasn’t been confirmed. Talent spoken to before this happened weren’t aware of his status, just that he hadn’t been at the Performance Center ‘in quite some time.’ 2K was recently told not to include Strong in WWE 2K23. It was said that Strong was cleared to wrestle and doing well physically, obviously proven last night when he appeared on Dynamite.

AEW talent were said to be “pleasantly surprised” by the news, as Strong is liked by many in the business.