Oro Mensah Shares Thoughts On WWE Release, If He Belongs In ‘Wrestling Bubble’

It’s been almost a year since Oro Mensah was released from WWE, and he recently reflected on his exit in a lengthy social media post. Mensah was among those who were released from the company in May of last year, and has since worked on the independent scene as Oro Annan (or just Oro). He most recently competed at the GCW/JCW Jersey J-Cup 2026 in early February.

Oro posted to his Twitter account on Monday to share a long post about his WWE exit, his time on the independent scene since, and more. You can see the relevant portion of the post below:

“I would normally never let people into my mind like this, but it felt right to do it anyways. I’m a very straight forward person who probably speaks before he thinks, as I value honesty over everything and expect the same in return. These are some thoughts that are probably scrambled and flying around through my head atm. Most of it I just haven’t shared with a lot of people anyways, not friends or family. So l’ll just start somewhere…

The scrambled

Roughly 7 months ago I lost my dream job. The one thing I knew I’d enjoy and sink my teeth into it and actually embrace it as a wonderful job. Because ever since I got introduced to wrestling by my brothers, that’s all I wanted to do. Like many others I obviously got ridiculed that it’s impossible and a far away dream. I laughed it off, I didn’t care that I was living in Nigeria, I didn’t care when we moved to Switzerland and the same things were said there too. I simply didn’t care, because my goal and my mind were set. I’m going to be a pro-wrestler. Lucky enough there was a school in Switzerland that thought wrestling and I knew my goal was closer than ever. I told myself, I’d be the first to make it! Then Claudio Castagnoli got signed, lol, but that only made me want it more. My brain exploded, because Claudio showed and proved it’s possible to make it from Switzerland. So I kept grinding and grinding. Weekends over weekends. Doing everything to get better and hopefully make a name and get booked all over Europe. Shamefully I must say the Swiss wrestling scene wasn’t very welcoming of me and didn’t do much to further my career to. You see starting of back then, they simply didn’t want to give young kids like me the time and day, it was more gatekept from the old heads, but not in the way of “you have to earn it”, they just straightforward didn’t want me there or around them or whatever. I was maybe a little to different of what they were used to. Anyways, I still managed to get booked around Europe, especially in Germany, where the scene was way more welcoming and gave me the platform which I knew I deserved. All the way till I had my first tryout and got signed by WWE. Now the funny thing about getting signed is how many “friends” you actually lose and how much stuff you hear about others downplaying your achievements. Even funnier is the “friends” you lose when you get released. I’ve always speculated and have had a good feeling of knowing who’d be there for me and these 2 moments solidified it even more. The real ones know and it ain’t many. It’s the same thing like doing the post on X/Twitter about getting released and you have x amount of likes, shares and people in the comments supporting you, but I knew that’s all just noise. Most goes away. Honestly, I’d rather have one honest reaction than fabricated noise.

But again, maybe I’m being too honest, sorry. I was expecting all the noise and didn’t take it as serious, because that dopamine of support can break you. Let me get back to topic here.

The day I get released. My head goes everywhere. Thinking about the past and all that shit, knowing I should’ve done better and also thinking if I should go back to the Indys, start all over again. I’m thinking that I’m in this weird age period, where people want to see the really young wrestlers do good and shine, but also love the older wrestlers who give them a nostalgic feeling. I’m none of them probably. I never made a name in the American-Indy scene and my style is not what people watch on the Indys. I always wanted to be, look and wrestle different.

Nowadays it seems as if repeating patterns is the audiences comfort and that there’s not much room for unfamiliarity to satisfy their mind. Then again, I could fall into the same templates, do the same things that are kinda the go to spots at the moment. But I’m a stubborn person and I have my ideology of what I want my art to be and would rather die on that hill than giving it up, just to be like others or please whomever. Too stubborn. But at the end of the day, I like different, I like variety. Seeing the same bores me. So where do I stand in this wrestling bubble now? Do I even belong? Or am I to the audience only as good as I was portrayed on NXT?”

Thoughts pt1 pic.twitter.com/diX7yNIotb

— Oro Annan (@TheMainManOro) March 2, 2026