Former US champion wasn’t “overly emotional” over WWE release

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His release was confirmed on April 24, and his last match for the company came in the same month at Main Event. While a few stars were caught off guard by WWE’s decision to release them, Crews, who now competes as Uhaa Natio, saw it coming. In fact, he expected it to happen a few days earlier.

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Crews said he was at his son’s basketball practice and had an idea that it might happen because it was WrestleMania week. He said he initially received a call telling him that he wasn’t needed for SmackDown.

“I was in Vegas for Mania, got home, and on Wednesday after Mania, I got a call from travel, and they said I’m not needed for SmackDown this week. In that moment, I instantly knew. ‘Friday, they’re going to call me, and this is going to be it.’ So, Friday came. Went about it like normal, and the whole day I was just waiting for the call. I get my son to basketball practice around like 5 PM, and the call comes. 45-second call, just explaining the situation. It didn’t hit me how I was expected,” he said.

Crews said there had been times over the years when he expected to be released and had a picture in mind of what it would feel like. However, he admitted it didn’t turn out to be what he thought.

“I didn’t really feel anything. It’s not like it was, ‘Ah, I don’t care’; I just didn’t give it enough time to process. Not that it was unexpected, but I think the fact that I did expect it kind of softened the blow. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but I wasn’t overly emotional about it,” he added.

Apollo Crews won two championships in WWE

Apollo Crews started his WWE career in NXT in 2015 before being called up to the main roster a year later.

In May 2020, he beat Andrade to win the United States championship, his first title in WWE.

On Night Two of WrestleMania 37, he beat Big E in a Nigerian Drum Fight to capture the WWE Intercontinental championship. Crews went back-and-forth between the main roster and NXT and also competed in Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on SmackDown before WrestleMania this year.

If you use quotes from this article, please credit INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.