It was just last Saturday that our Cain Knight wondered, “What’s going on with Andrade?” in his weekly WWE Stock Report column. None of Cain’s questions were answered over the past week, and the tag partner Andrade was just recently partnered up with wrestled solo again last night (Sept. 12) on SmackDown.
Now, the former NXT, United States, and Speed champion is apparently gone from WWE for the second time. First, folks noticed he’d been quietly been reclassified as a “WWE Alumni” on the company’s website:
Then Fightful Select followed up with a report that “Andrade is gone from WWE”. Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp writes that the Mexican star wasn’t on the internal injury report for August, but when he inquired about Andrade not being used in a particular match recently Sapp was told “if it was possible, he would be”.
Andrade left WWE once before, when he ended a roughly six year stint with the company by requesting and receiving his release in 2021. He was one of several former WWE talents who had odd runs in AEW, then returned to WWE as a surprise entrant in 2024’s Men’s Royal Rumble match. After racking up easy wins on Raw, the 35-year-old became involved in the Mysterio family storyline, and the LWO and Legado Del Fantasma feud (which he didn’t seem thrilled with), before fading into the background. He was an entrant in this year’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, and his last match will apparently have been a losing effort with Fenix in Clash in Paris’ Six Pack TLC Tag title match.
The timing seems especially weird considering WWE’s push into lucha libre via their acquisition of AAA. But despite appearing at the WrestleMania announcement about the AAA deal, Andrade never appeared in the promotion or on WWE’s crossover shows with AAA. During his run in his home country as the masked luchador La Sombra, Andrade worked for AAA’s rival (and AEW and New Japan’s partner) CMLL.
No indication that has anything to do with today’s surprising news. Nor is there any indication whatsoever that Andrade’s divorce from WWE star Charlotte Flair last year has anything to do with Andrade’s exit, but jokes and speculation have unfortunately already started.
Hopefully new reports will soon provide some clarity on what did go wrong this time between Andrade and WWE. While Fightful doesn’t know the circumstances of Andrade’s exit, they do say it’s not part of a larger round of cuts or expiring contracts.
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