Duke Hudson confirms WWE release with Vignette
On February 4 AEDT, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that WWE had released Duke Hudson in January 2025, which has been confirmed by Hudson today via a vignette.
Duke had been with WWE since 2019 and competed primarily on NXT, though teamed with TMDK stablemate Shane Thorne on Raw during 2020. The wrestler, formerly known as Elliot Sexton in Australia, competed in NXT’s breakout tournament in 2021 reaching the semi finals, but his greatest success came as a member of Chase U alongside Thea Hail, Riley Osbourne and Andre Chase in 2022, climbing the tag team rankings and eventually claiming the NXT Tag team championships from the D’Angelo Family at NXT’s Halloween Havoc in October 2023.
His Chase U stablemates were glowing in their appreciation of Hudson’s efforts, with Andre Chase posting on X “just wanted to publicly thank Duke Hudson for all of his hard work and contributions to Chase U. From the p@ker table, to the classroom, to the tag-team Match of the Year, all the way to the top as champions in the WWE. You the real MVP”
Thea Hail posted to Instagram “Thank you for believing in me when no one else did and giving me the knowledge as not just a wrestler but a person. Thank you for everything. Now go kick ass and show everyone how amazing you are.”
As for the man himself, Hudson posted a vignette in a between two ferns style interview between two versions of himself, one dejected and another an edgier side of himself, playing devil’s advocate and acting as a journalist attempting to manipulate the dejected version to tell the audience how he really felt following the release . Titled “Wrestling with Identity”, it’s another example of the creative mind of Hudson who some Australian wrestling fans may remember created a number of YouTube series of his adventures, titled Trophy Life, Total Flogs, SMUG and Dark Side of the SMUG. This latest appears to have more than one episode, with the interviewer stating “I’m not done with you” and fans should keep an eye on Duke’s socials for his next move in due course. The vignette can be viewed at the link below.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFqMjw9RI0k/?igsh=MWNqNDdlaW12NWIzdw==
Another bald, bearded wrestling adjacent guy, fantastic…Got into Wrestling thanks to Optus Vision and Turner Classic Movies channel, which aired Nitro, then Foxtel when I finally got to enjoy WWE live each and every week. This evolved into a love of many a different iteration of the artform, but the one I’m passionate about the most is the high level on display across this country – The Australian professional wrestling scene! That’s why I’m here, that and I was far too uncoordinated to ever attempt to do it myself.
