Alexander Wolfe Clarifies Not Being Released By WWE, How WWE Treated His Departure
Recently departed WWE star Alexander Wolfe sat down with Gary Cassidy of Inside the Ropes to talk about his split from the promotion. Wolfe revealed that WWE letting him go caught him off guard at the time, though in hindsight it makes sense.
"No, nothing at all," Wolfe said when asked if he saw it coming. "After it happened, it kind of made sense what happened two weeks before. Not storyline-wise, more like backstage-wise. But it was weird. Like, first off, that was one of the most things that stung me, what really sucked was the way it was. I mean, it's a send off and of course it has to happen somehow but, for me, I get the whole point how they did it and it's better that then just disappear without explanation.
"I'm happy that I could do it with my best friends. So I had to match against Killian Dain and we get the send-off from two of my mates, which I'm very good and very like, it's two of my friends. They could give me their farewell and I'm happy for them that they had the chance to give me that. But on the other side, it was very weird. So now I hear a lot of reports, it should have happened three weeks ago and it explains a lot of things why they kind of like stalled the storyline, because usually they plan the match and then Triple H is like, 'let's do another angle. Let's go with it next week.'"
Wolfe also revealed that the NXT creative process led to talent like himself not getting a ton of direction about their future onscreen plans. He attributed this to the hectic schedules of both Triple H and Shawn Michaels making it hard to get answers.
"In general, they do not give you a lot of heads up with creative, just speaking with NXT," Wolfe said. "I don't know how it is right now up there with RAW and SmackDown, but they don't give you a lot of heads up, because with everything, one guy gets tested positive and the entire storyline has to get postponed in the future. But with me I tried to get a hold of Triple H or even Shawn Michaels, and both those guys are very busy men. Shawn is very busy. Triple H is busier with his position and everything. So I kind of told myself, yeah, if they don't have the time, no need to rush because my plan was originally, I wanted to move back to Germany anyway because I have a two year old kid and I want him to grow up with his grandparents, and they don't get younger.
"Because of what happened with the pandemic, I was stuck for a couple of times in Germany, so I had the chance to work anyway in NXT UK. So it's an easier travel for me and also I'm back in Germany. I wasn't that keen to stay in the States. So I tried to chat with those guys and talk with them. 'hey, is there a possibility?' But it never came to that. And for me also the big question was, 'am I staying with Imperium or you want to do Sanity 2.0?' And I never had the chance to talk with them. I tried it a couple of times, but it was like, 'yeah, we'll go back and get back to you.' No message or answer. And again, both were very busy. So I'm not wanting to say they tried to dodge me, but it's kind of after thinking it's yeah, you probably don't want to talk to a guy you plan to release because he did not, in your opinion, evolve as much as we keep the investment. And that's a part of the business."
Wolfe has mixed emotions on the release. He's happy for all he's learned in his six years wit WWE, as well as the pride he's developed as a pro wrestler, but for those reasons is still taken aback that he was let go from the promotion.
"I'm totally fine with that because I learned in those six years to understand this," Wolfe said. "But it's more like the pride of me as a professional wrestler that I know I'm very good at what I'm doing. I'm probably not the biggest, the strongest. I'm not in the best shape I could be. I understand that. And that's also the first thing I do. I just touch my own nose and ask myself what I have to do better to keep the job and not blaming others because that's weak. I feel like I could do everything what they want from me. I did everything what they want for me in six years, I could be a clown, I could be serious. I can do almost everything in the ring. And I'm very grateful for the six years because I learned a lot.
"But on the other hand, it's kind of, you guys hire people that are not able to take a single bump. They are not able to run the ropes. You have to teach them everything and they get hired by WWE and you fire me? So that was the point where I even told the guy who gave me the bad message, that's the only thing that really pissed me off. But in the end, it is what it is. And, you know, now I have to chance to find something else that makes me more satisfied. It's probably not as easy as getting paid that much money by sitting at home or doing nothing or eating catering but in the end, it's now just, you know, I have to hustle. I have to see what I can do. I have to see, you know, who wants somebody on the show who can deliver."
Wolfe took the time to once again confirm that he wasn't outright released from WWE but that the promotion will let his contract expire next month. He also gave credit to WWE for their communication in the matter and applauded their professionalism.
"Yes, yes, yes," Wolfe confirmed. "WWE didn't release me but it was not my choice. It wasn't my choice. If I had the choice, I probably would stay with WWE because it's the biggest company and again, it's very comfortable to work for them because you make a lot of money with doing nothing. I still went to the Performance Center and used the facility as a tool for life for my own, like, brand. But yeah, WWE told me, 'hey, we will not release you but your contract is up on June 15th, so we will let you run out the contract and then, on June 16th, you're off to go,' which I really appreciate because I kind of got the 30 day no compete clause, but not really. So they give me the heads up four weeks ahead.
"I have a lot of work to do now just to get rid of all the household and then just move back to Germany. Yeah, it's OK. But like, fair enough. I have to say, even if a lot of people just spitting venom right now and say, "yeah, f— WWE," and everything, so they always take care of the talents and they are even fair enough because I will go back to Germany because I need to because of visa reason, they paid for my flight back. They are very kind in communicating with me just, for example, because of moving reasons, I ask them to pay me out completely out of the contract – that I not get still the weekly salary and they are cool with that. They even asked me if I want to have it. So you can be negative about as much as you want but even me being pissed off about the reason they let me go, I have to say fair play to them because they always took care of me, they always been very kind and very professional."