Former WWE Star Reflects On Gallus Release, Main Roster Plans That Never Happened

Former WWE star Joe Coffey appeared on the Refinโ€™ It Up podcast and discussed various topics, including Gallus’s release by WWE.

Coffey said, โ€œI mean, itโ€™s unfortunate. It happens and itโ€™s the nature of the business. Iโ€™d literally just finished a (workout) on the stairmaster so I was delighted that that was finished, and then I got the number from Connecticut and I just โ€” you know, you know, and youโ€™re just like, โ€˜Ah well,โ€™ and it was pretty short in the conversation because I was just frustrated about it. My brother was sitting outside. He just finished a tan session and he was in the car and the door opened and I went, โ€˜Well, Iโ€™ve just been released so, if you get released, Iโ€™m sorry. If not, good luck and stay out and smash itโ€™ so, I was a bit angry about it.โ€

On being thankful for the opportunity:

โ€œWent homeโ€ฆ Frustrated about the way it panned out because moving your life over here from overseas isnโ€™t an easy task, and you know, Iโ€™m always thankful for WWE and NXT for the opportunity. Learned so much, it was great. All the staff there are fantastic, the coaches are top-notch. I canโ€™t say enough good things. I just wish things had panned out a little bit differently and we heard for a long time we may be going to the main roster and doing something with Drew (McIntyre). Who knows? I understand Drew is on the run of a career and heโ€™s doing some amazing stuff. But, we had little teases of it. Weโ€™re brought in to Survivor Series program and the Royal Rumble program as Gallus, the only NXT people and like, thatโ€™s really strange, and a lot of people were talking about it and we thought, oh, maybe itโ€™s gonna happen soon. But it didnโ€™t happen.โ€

On what was frustrating about their time in WWE:

โ€œIt was just a little bit frustrating. For myself, I feel a little bit personally frustrated because I feel as if I didnโ€™t get to scratch the surface of what I can do in NXT. We were holding a lot of hands at times, which is totally fine and thereโ€™s a lot of people who arenโ€™t from this world who are trying to learn and we were essentially helping teach them in the ring and so it was just a little bit frustrating, especially the body of work I had done up until then from NXT U.K. and Iโ€™ve been on TakeOvers and featured on TV quite a lot to my independent career where all over Europe, I was doing main events after main event and you know, was very much comfortable with that, and so it was a little bit frustrating that way but, itโ€™s one of these things and itโ€™s just on to the next chapter. If I ever make my way back there โ€” Iโ€™d like to think weโ€™re on great terms. I was always very professional. Sometimes maybe a bit too professional and not being selfish enough. But, unfortunately, that falls under the good little soldierโ€ฆ which is a shame. But, even throwing it back to the WrestleMania weekend with The Rock, we were seen as very professional. We have done this job, weโ€™re very mature and I think thatโ€™s one of the reasons why we got sent there because weโ€™re very reliable, weโ€™re very safe and we know what weโ€™re doing.โ€

On if he was surprised about their release:

โ€œ50/50 to be honest (Coffey said when asked if he was surprised by WWE release). Weโ€™d been off NXT TV since December and we were doing EVOLVE which is like another kind of an offshoot show of NXT to help younger talent and weโ€™d been asked, โ€˜Hey, we need some experience on the showโ€™ and weโ€™re like, โ€˜Yeah. No problem. More than happy to. We just wanna work.โ€™ Iโ€™d work every show, every night if I could, twice on Sunday and so we kind of cooled off on TV for a little bit and weโ€™d been brought back and it was really goodโ€ฆ but then weโ€™re kicked off and you just start to think, could get released here. So itโ€™s always in the back of your mind. But, knowing what I can offer, I was not shocked but just disappointed. I was like, hmm, youโ€™ve maybe missed the trick here.โ€

You can check out the complete podcast below.

(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)