Former Champions Explain Why Leaving WWE Was ‘Right Decision’

WWE

A pair of former champions have explained why they feel leaving WWE was the “right decision”.

Back in October 2023, James Drake and Zack Gibson, collectively known as the Grizzled Young Veterans departed WWE at the end of their contracts.

Despite achieving success in WWE NXT UK and in the black and gold era of NXT, the door were repackaged as The Dyad in the Summer of 2022 taking up the names Rip Fowler (Gibson) and Jagger Reid (Drake).

Speaking to Cultaholic, Drake & Gibson explained their decision to leave WWE at length, revealing why they believe it was the correct decision.

James Drake explained:

“We decided just before Stand & Deliver last year that we’ll tidy up the storyline at Stand & Deliver because at that point everything’s done.

“Then we would go and talk to the office and have conversations about us wanting to leave. We did the match and both myself and Zack were on the ramp looking back at the ring. At that point, myself anyway, I was genuinely ready to move on now…

“As a whole, WWE are doing great business and it’s a great place to be. It wasn’t a great place for us. We were being optimised to help the younger talent get ready because there was an influx of brand new wrestlers from 2.0 that really didn’t know anything about wrestling.

“We used to own a wrestling school so we could actually articulate things as well. It was a nice compliment that they could see that in us and they trusted us to get people essentially prepared for a main roster run.

“On the flip side, we were kind of locked in a situation where we couldn’t progress and we could see that. So we got to a point where we’re still grizzled, young, but we’re only young for so long and it was one of those times where it was now or never, essentially. If we don’t do this now, when is it happening?”

Zack Gibson then added:

“It was a big decision to make, it wasn’t something that was made overnight. There was no one big thing that made us do it. It was more of a combination of a lot of things that came together…

“The easiest way that we have found to describe it is in a nutshell, WWE’s stock is going up and up and up but our personal stock at the time was going down. Regardless of where their stock was going, obviously we are our own business.

“We looked at ourselves and noticed that our stock was going down so we did something about it. Now, six months out, our stock is going up again so we made the right decision.”

Since departing WWE, Drake and Gibson have competed for numerous companies in the US and UK, most notably appearing numerous times for TNA Wrestling and recently making their debut in AEW.

They also recently announced the opening of their own brand new wrestling company known as Burning Heart Pro Wrestling – click here for full details.

Transcript via Cultaholic

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