Olympic gold medalist Tamyra Mensah-Stock was among many NXT releases on Friday, along with numerous main roster cuts.
The 2020 Olympic gold medalist was the highest-profile name among the NXT releases and joins Andre Chase, Tyriek Igwe, Tyson Dupont, Malik Blade, Luca Crusifino, Chris Island, Sirena Linton, and Trill London at the NXT and developmental level of WWE’s releases.
Mensah-Stock, 33, was a gold medalist in freestyle wrestling in Tokyo at the 2020 Olympics (which took place one year later due to the pandemic) and was signed along with fellow gold medalist Gable Steveson.
She was a member of the first season of LFG and was the female winner of the series. It led to her on-screen debut on NXT.
Last year, she was paired with Tavion Heights for a match against Ethan Page & Chelsea Green at NXT Heatwave, where the crowd in Lowell, Massachusetts, turned on Heights & Steele and got behind the heels. Steele only had a few more matches on NXT television while also wrestling sporadically in EVOLVE.
Tyriek Igwe (Chukwusom Enekwechi) and Tyson Dupont (Rickssen Opont) debuted in 2023 as a team and were heavily featured on Level Up, moving to NXT in late 2024 and receiving a bit of a push. Last year, they formed High Ryze with Dezmond Xavier, but after Xavier’s release, it cooled them dramatically.
Andre Chase (Chance Barrow) was the longest tenured of the NXT cuts. He signed in 2021 and became a cult favorite at the beginning of NXT 2.0 as a heel teacher and leader of Chase University, which got over really week to the regulars attending the shows in Florida. The character and group essentially ended in 2024 when Chase was forced to disband Chase U after losing to Ridge Holland. They attempted to revive the gimmick last year with Uriah Connors and Kale Dixon with Chase as their manager, but it didn’t have the spark of the original incarnation.
Luca Crusifino (Roman Macek) was signed after a WWE tryout in 2022 and played a lawyer, as he was attending law school. He became a consigliere to Tony D’Angelo and The Family. He had not wrestled on NXT television since last summer, and last appeared on the March 20 episode of EVOLVE.
Malik Blade (Josh Dawkins) wrestled on the independents and signed with WWE in 2021. He was introduced on NXT with Edris Enofe in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in 2022. In October 2024, he tore his ACL and missed a year of action, but returned last November, although only had four matches since his return and had not been used on NXT programming since the injury.
Chris Island was an amateur wrestler at CBU in California, signed in 2024, and was part of the first two seasons of LFG. He had only done a handful of NXT live events.
Trill London (Trill Williams) played with the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins, but was only active for five games with the Dolphins and was waived in 2023. He signed with WWE the next year and participated in LFG season two.
Sirena Linton was on the first two seasons of LFG with a gymnastics background. She went to the semi-finals of the second season, losing to Dani Sekelsky a.k.a. Skylar Raye. Linton worked NXT live events earlier this year, teaming with Thea Hail and challenging Fallon Henley for the Speed Championship in February in Jacksonville.
