Former NXT star Roderick Strong made a surprising debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) this week, catching many fans and insiders off guard. However, there may have been a specific reason why Strong’s departure from NXT wasn’t widely known within the company – WWE’s policy of not announcing NXT departures.

According to PW Insider, Strong’s WWE deal expired in November 2022, several months prior to his AEW debut. Since WWE doesn’t announce NXT departures and it wasn’t a release but a contract ending, Strong’s departure reportedly “flew under the radar.” In fact, Strong was even listed on WWE.com well after he had already made his debut for AEW.

The report notes that AEW was able to pull off the surprise debut thanks in part to WWE’s policy, as nobody knew that Strong’s deal was up in November. This allowed AEW to time the debut after Adam Cole’s return and keep it local to Florida to prevent Strong from being spotted traveling.

However, there was more to the story than just WWE’s policy of not announcing NXT departures. According to the same PW Insider report, Strong and AEW had actually been “quietly talking for some time about him coming in and came to a deal.” Strong had taken several months off after being “banged up” for the last run of his NXT career, but was apparently in good enough shape to make his AEW debut on Dynamite this week.

In addition to keeping Strong’s departure from NXT under wraps, AEW also went to great lengths to keep his debut a surprise. The report notes that Strong was hidden backstage prior to his debut and that “a lot of things happened in a row to pull it off,” with some of the credit going to sources outside of AEW.

Overall, WWE’s policy of not announcing NXT departures may have inadvertently helped AEW pull off a major surprise with Roderick Strong’s debut. However, it’s also clear that there was more to the story than just WWE’s policy, as Strong and AEW had apparently been in talks for some time and worked hard to keep the debut a secret.