Apollo Crews knew the call was coming. He just didn’t expect to take it at his son’s basketball practice.
Crews walked through his WWE release on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, saying he saw the signs the week of WrestleMania. He was one of roughly two dozen names cut on April 24, the Friday after WrestleMania 42, in a round that also included Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Kairi Sane and the entire Wyatt Sicks group.
“That week I kind of had an idea, because it was WrestleMania the week before, and I hadn’t been doing anything on TV, and I got called in to do some appearances at WrestleMania, which was pretty cool,” Crews said. “I think the two years before that, I just stayed at home for both WrestleManias.”
The tell came a few days later.
“I think it was Wednesday after Mania, I got a call from travel, and they said that I’m not needed for SmackDown this week. So I’ll be staying home,” Crews said. “And at that moment, I instantly knew. I was like, okay, Friday they’re gonna call me, and this is gonna be it.”
Friday came, and he spent the day waiting.
“I get my son to basketball practice around like 5 p.m., and here the call comes. Forty-five-second call, just explaining the situation,” Crews said.
Crews said his own reaction caught him off guard. He’d pictured the moment many times over the years, watching others get released around him.
“I’d almost developed like this survivor’s remorse, because I’m like, man, how come I’m still here?” Crews said. “I always pictured what it would be like, but when it happened, it was nothing like I pictured.”
What he felt was closer to nothing at all.
“I didn’t really feel anything. And when I said I didn’t feel anything, it wasn’t like, ah, I don’t care,” Crews said. “I think I just didn’t give it enough time to process. The fact that I did expect it kind of helped soften the blow.”
Being at practice meant there was no time to sit with it.
“I was at basketball practice with my son, so I was like, okay, I have to still be a dad,” Crews said. “Once this practice is over, I can’t just sulk in my misery until we get home. He knows nothing about what’s going on with the job, and even if I explained it to him, he just couldn’t understand it.”
Crews said he texted his wife immediately, having warned her days earlier that he expected it. He then extended a planned family trip to Finland, where his wife is from, into a month-long stay.
“Eleven years is a long time to be tied up in the company, and a lot of my identity was inside WWE,” Crews said. “So I was like, I need to figure out who I am outside of this company.”
He bought a bicycle and went back to David Goggins’ book, using physical challenges as a way to process what had happened.
“Let me push myself to the physical limit and see if I can find out who I am outside of this place,” Crews said. “I think it was my way of coping with these emotions.”
Crews said real life didn’t leave much room for wallowing.
“Sometimes when you want to just kind of curl up into a ball and disappear, I didn’t have that opportunity,” Crews said. “I had two kids. I had a wife that still needed to go to school. My son had a basketball game the next day. I had neighbors that you got to talk to, people in your real life that you got to see. But their situation hasn’t changed, and yours has.”
He said the upside has been waking up without somewhere to be.
“It always felt like I had somewhere to be when I was with the company,” Crews said. “I don’t even know if I’ve gotten all the way to that point yet. It’s only been a couple months. But I realized quickly, it’s not the end of the world. This is an opportunity for something new as well.”
Crews believes a WWE return is available to him if he wants it. Asked whether the door is still open, he said he thinks it is, and pointed to how he conducted himself over his 11 years there.
“I feel like I do, because what I try to do is leave the most positive outlook I can, no matter where I go,” Crews said. “I never got in trouble. I never did anything that was against the company policy or anything like that.”
That, he believes, would count for something.
“So I think if that option was on the table, I definitely would be a likely candidate,” Crews said. “I think that option would be there for sure. But it’s not something I’m sitting here just waiting and dying to happen.”
Crews said his attention has shifted since the release. He is finishing a master’s degree in sports nutrition and has begun taking on clients, including Ricochet.
“When I first got released, I was doing all these things to try to find who I was, and that just naturally came over these last couple months,” Crews said. “I’ve dove so deep into that that I’ve almost forgot that I was a wrestler, and it’s crazy to say, because that’s a huge part of my life.”
Crews said he is still wrestling, with a Dragon Gate booking in Japan and more dates lined up. Since his release he has also returned to TNA under his old independent name, Uhaa Nation, debuting at Slammiversary in June. Dragon Gate is where he made his name before WWE signed him in late 2014.
“At this moment, I am focused on other things and making sure that when it’s all said and done, I have something to do when wrestling’s done,” Crews said. “I’m not going to wrestle that long, but I can’t just not do anything. So it was about finding something that’s not as physically demanding as wrestling.”
Crews spent most of 2025 out with a torn pectoral muscle, returning to the ring at an AAA taping in November and to WWE programming in January. His last WWE match was a loss to Mr. Iguana at a Main Event taping that aired on the day of his release. He held the United States Championship and the Intercontinental Championship during his run.
