Former WWE Stars Now Free Agents, Wrestler Deletes Photo Over Backlash

By Marc Middleton

Several former WWE Superstars are becoming free agents as their 90-day non-compete clauses are expiring after today. Buddy Murphy, Braun Strowman, Lana, Ruby Riott, Santana Garrett and Aleister Black were all released back on June 2 of this year.

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Black, now using the name Malakai Black in AEW, had a different contract situation and debuted with that company several weeks back. Soho released her third teaser vignette late last night and is rumored to be signing with AEW soon. You can click here for her latest vignette.

There is no word on Lana's pro wrestling future but she will be appearing on VH1's Surreal Life beginning September 27, under her real name, CJ Perry. She recently announced her first post-WWE signings on Instagram, as seen in the post below. She will be appearing at Jimmy World's Order in Los Angeles on September 12, and then at the Legends of the Ring convention in Iselin, New Jersey on October 2.

Garrett posted a "COMING SOON" post to Instagram last week, and then teased that she was "making moves" in another post on Monday of this week. You can see both of those Instagram posts below.

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Strowman, who will apparently use "Titan" as his post-WWE ring name, teased earlier this week that he will have some sort of announcement at 12 noon on Wednesday of this week. You can see his tweet below. Strowman has been rumored to sign with AEW and Impact Wrestling, but there's no word on where he will end up. He has also released new "RISE" merchandise, seen below.

Murphy, now using the name Buddy Matthews in his post-WWE career, received some backlash today for posting a graphic that referenced his WWE non-compete expiring. The post included a photo of someone breaking free from chains on their wrists, with a caption that said, "It's here! #FreeAgent"

Buddy deleted the tweet not long after posting it due to backlash from people on Twitter, who accused Murphy of comparing his WWE run to slavery, and making light of the topic. The image he used is the first one listed on a Google Image search for "freedom." You can see a screenshot of Buddy's deleted tweet below. Buddy then posted another image with the "#freeagent" hashtag, showing birds flying out of a cage. That image is the second listed on the "freedom" Google Image search.

Buddy is also rumored to be headed to Impact Wrestling, but nothing is confirmed as of this writing. He's been using the nickname "Secret No More" and has a new theme song with that title, by the band Downstait. You can also see his theme below.

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Stay tuned for more on the new free agents. You can see the related posts below:

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