As PWMania.com previously reported, Duke Hudson is no longer part of WWE, as Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that the company quietly released him in January 2025. News of his departure has only recently surfaced, and it remains unclear what led to his release.
Hudson first debuted under his real name, Brendan Vink, at an NXT house show in 2019 before making his televised NXT debut in 2020, teaming with Shane Thorne. In March 2020, he briefly appeared on Raw alongside Thorne under the management of MVP, before the duo was sent back to NXT.
In 2021, he was rebranded as Duke Hudson, competing in the NXT Breakout Tournament. A year later, he became a key member of Chase University, joining Andre Chase and Thea Hail in 2022. His biggest success came in 2023, when he won the NXT Tag Team Championship with Andre Chase, marking his first WWE title reign. However, Chase U disbanded in late 2024, leaving Hudson’s future with the company uncertain.
His release adds to the growing list of WWE talent departures in recent months, and it remains to be seen where Hudson will land next in his wrestling career.
Dave Meltzer talked about Hudson’s release during an appearance on Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer stated:
“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.”
