Did Triple H fire Duke Hudson? All you need to know about his WWE release

Unfortunate news came out earlier today for fans of WWE and NXT in particular. Veteran of the brand Duke Hudson was released by the Sports Entertainment juggernaut.

According to reports, Duke was actually let go in January. It wasn't as part of some big series of cuts, but instead, Hudson was seemingly the only person let go. Some WWE fans unfamiliar with how these releases work are curious if Triple H personally fired Duke Hudson from WWE. The answer is no, he did not directly fire Hudson, but it was ultimately Triple H's decision.

The Game doesn't personally release talent. That is left up to other employees and oftentimes the Head of Talent Relations. Despite that, the decision as to who gets cut is generally Triple H's to make.

According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, Triple H made the call to let Duke go because he seemingly doesn't see the talented Australian as a "main roster guy." This would explain why Duke spent years in developmental.

He was signed by the Sports Entertainment juggernaut in 2019 and briefly dabbled with the main roster during the pandemic, but aside from his time in Chase U, never truly found his footing. Chase U's end seemingly spelled the end of the Duke Hudson character.

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The WWE future of the other absent stars from Chase U isn't clear

For those unaware, Chase University was a stable on WWE NXT led by Andre Chase. While it featured different members at various points, those most closely associated with it include Andre, Duke Hudson, Thea Hail, and Riley Osborne.

Several months ago, Andre lost a match against Ridge Holland with Chase U's future on the line. Chase lost, causing the group to disband. In the time since then, only Andre has made television appearances and those have been few and far between.

With Duke's release, it isn't quite clear what the future holds for Riley Osborne and Thea Hail in particular. Both stars are quite young at 26 and 21 years old respectively, but losing the Chase U stable has caused both to completely vanish.

Hopefully, both stars can have a bright future in the company, but that remains to be seen. As of now, there is no report on either WWE personality being released, so they could reappear on NXT at any point. Alternatively, they could be called up to the main roster or even used on EVOLVE, the Sports Entertainment titan's next brand set to arrive next month.