Neville, former NXT champion, NXT Tag Team champion, Cruiserweight champion and the self-proclaimed King of the Cruiserweights is no longer employed by WWE. Yesterday he’d been officially moved to the “alumni” section of WWE superstars.
Neville hadn’t been seen on any form of WWE programming since October of last year. It had been reported that he walked out of the arena and asked for his release, but WWE refused to grant it to him on the precedent that talent couldn’t just ask to leave and sign elsewhere. They instead let him stay at home and run out his contract to its end.
There had been reports that there were conversations between Neville and higher-ups, but clearly, nothing came to fruition. Such a shame because Neville is such an unbelievably talented performer with an insane level of body control for such a jacked dude. His King of the Cruiserweight character was so compelling, it was pretty much unanimous that everyone wanted him to just stay the Cruiserweight champion forever. But alas, yet another character that WWE didn’t fully utilize to their full potential.
The silver lining in all of this is that he won’t have a no-compete clause since it’s been well over 90 days since he’s performed. Where would Neville go next? The biggest hitter outside WWE is New Japan Pro Wrestling. But what if he showed up this weekend at All-In? Maybe he could enter the “Over the Budget” Battle Royale and land himself a match against Jay Lethal for the Ring of Honor Championship.
Wherever he goes, he’ll have a big price on his head. Not competing for almost a year has increased his value, and demand to see him perform hasn’t slowed down. I really hope he goes somewhere that he can showcase his talents to the world again as he truly is one of a kind. The man that gravity forgot, will not be forgotten.
Braden Jackson – @Dembrae
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