As the wrestling world knows by now, former WWE superstar Roderick Strong has made the jump to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and made his debut on the latest episode of Dynamite. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Radio, the majority of people were unaware that Strong’s WWE contract was expiring and that he had signed with AEW.

Fightful Select reports that WWE had been silent about Strong’s status in the company and the last update was that talks were in progress to make him a coach at the Performance Center for the remainder of his contract. It’s unclear if Strong was ever informed of this plan.

Strong had signed a new contract with WWE in 2021 and was expected to be the face of the revamped NXT cruiserweight division. However, those plans changed after Triple H lost control of NXT and several wrestlers, including Arturo Ruas, Marina Shafir, Stokely Hathaway, Hideki Suzuki, and Tyler Rust, were released. Strong had requested his release last year, which was initially denied.

Sources within WWE believed that Strong’s deal was supposed to last until 2024, but this has yet to be confirmed. Other talent within WWE were not aware of Strong’s status, only that he hadn’t been present at the Performance Center “in quite some time.” Furthermore, 2K was recently informed to exclude Strong from WWE 2K23. However, it was revealed that Strong was cleared to wrestle and was in excellent physical condition, as demonstrated by his appearance on AEW Dynamite.

AEW talent were said to be pleasantly surprised by the news, as Strong is well-liked by many in the wrestling industry.