Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: brian kendrick, Harland, Joe Gacy, mustafa ali, NXT, NXT 2.0, wrestling, wwe, WWE Cruiserweight Champion, wwe release, WWE Tag Team Champion

Brian Kendrick Requested His Release From WWE Weeks Ago

While the only thing WWE tried really hard on in 2021 was trimming their rosters and staff by releasing over 80 wrestlers from their contracts with the company, it seems in 2022 they aren't quite as gung-ho about giving talents the boot, at least not when the talents themselves are the ones who want it.  It was a week ago this past Sunday when SmackDown star Mustafa Ali publically declared he was requesting his release from WWE, but the company has not granted his request.  Now Ali can be joined by another person currently under contract, former wrestler and recent NXT Producer Brian Kendrick, who has made a request to be released only for it to be ignored by the company.

Brian Kendrick was still an active wrestler for WWE until late 2020 and then transitioned into the backstage role of Producer for the NXT brand down in Orlando, where he has been since.  And according to a new report by Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Kendrick has had enough and is ready to leave.  "We can confirm that Brian Kendrick, who had most recently been working as a producer on WWE NXT and 205 Live, requested a release from the company weeks ago and has not been to any TV tapings in Orlando in some time.  We are told Kendrick has been waiting for a release "at least" six weeks."

Only a month ago, it seemed as if the 42 year old Brian Kendrick might be returning to the ring when he was involved in a brief story with NXT 2.0 villians Joe Gacy and Harland.  On the December 14 episode, Harland threw Kendrick down a flight of stairs while being led out of the building.

The next week, Kendrick responded by challenging Harland to a match on the next episode.

When that day came, Brian Kendrick was a no-show for the match, with the allusion being that Harland attacked him before so that he would not be able to compete.

That was the end of that brief story and we haven't seen Brian Kendrick since.  If this is indeed the end of Kendrick in WWE, it will be the end of a career that saw him win the Cruiserweight Championship and the Tag Team Championship twice.  At Unforgiven 2008, Kendrick was in the WWE Championship Scramble Match and actually won the title for a short amount of time throughout the match, but ultimately Triple H would win the overall match, so Kendrick's reign as WWE Champion isn't recognized as official.

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