Duke Hudson is no longer part of WWE. On Monday night, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported WWE released Hudson in January. Word is just getting out about the departure. It’s unclear what led to the release.
Hudson debuted under his real name, Brendan Vink, at an NXT house show in 2019 before making his TV debut on NXT in 2020, teaming with Shane Thorne. In March 2020, Vink began appearing on Raw alongside Thorne before MVP traded them to NXT after a brief alliance.
He was branded as Duke Hudson in 2021, participating in the NXT Breakout Tournament. He later aligned with Chase University in 2022, becoming a regular member alongside Andre Chase and Thea Hail.
He later won the NXT Tag Team Championship with Andre Chase in 2023, marking his first title win in WWE. However, Chase University disbanded in late 2024.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed Hudson’s release. Meltzer said, “He had a good babyface comeback. I was a little surprised, but this is the deal. He’s 34 years old. And I think the decision was essentially that we’ve had him in developmental for what’s it been, six years? And we just don’t think he’s, you know, he had his one shot on the main roster, [Paul] Heyman saw a lot in him. He saw a big guy, good look, moves. Well, he wasn’t ready, but Heyman thought, you know, if you remember, when Heyman started on the Raw thing, his big thing was to bring in all kinds of new guys and push and push guys who hadn’t been pushed before. And you know, the idea was, the ratings are going to go down, and in a year, 18 months, whatever, once these guys get over, it’ll be all fresh, won’t be stale, and they’ll be it’ll be a younger crowd and a younger audience because remember, at the time. Yeah, they were doing shit with younger viewers. I mean, that’s where AEW was beating them. So that was, like, the goal, you know. And Duke was, you know, a guy he tried with for, like, three weeks, and then Vince got the three-week thing. And it’s like, ‘Nah.’ And that was that, and he was gone. And I think once that happened. Now, of course, Vince is gone, so it doesn’t matter, but you know, [Paul ‘Triple H’] Levesque is the one who makes the calls, and for whatever reason, you know, he didn’t see Duke as a main roster guy. So at some point, when you’re, you know, when you’re 34, and you don’t see him as a main roster guy, and he’d been there for six years, it’s kind of like that’s the way it works.”
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