Andrade's Release Was Reportedly Disciplinary In Nature

Andrade's departure from WWE came as a surprise to many fans over the weekend, as the star had just competed alongside Rey Fenix at SummerSlam in the ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championships. Since the news first broke on Saturday, it's since been reported that Andrade's release was not a "mutual decision" and WWE made the call to let the former AEW star go after he hadn't been backstage for almost a month. Dave Meltzer also reported on "Wrestling Observer Radio" that his release was disciplinary in nature from an incident a few weeks ago.

"...all I know is it was at a TV shoot and he was told to go home and he hasn't been used since," Meltzer said. "I was told it was not drug-related. It was not alcohol-related. It was not marriage-related, although the marriage [to Charlotte Flair] is over. But nobody would tell me what it was. It was enough to be sent home, and when he was sent home... The feeling when he got sent home was that it must be serious, because you don't hear about that."

Meltzer said that when he was sent home, those in the know assumed Andrade was done, but the confirmation came on Saturday. He said he didn't know the whole story outside of it being disciplinary but it wasn't Andrade's choice to leave.

Andrade has not been seen on WWE television since the premium live event at the beginning of August. His tag team partner, Fenix, has moved on and has performed at live events on the road to Clash in Paris and most recently answered Sami Zayn's United States Championship Open Challenge. According to Meltzer, Andrade's departure wasn't because he wasn't being used well or was unhappy.

"I mean, yeah, I'm positive he's unhappy, but it wasn't him asking out," Meltzer said. "He [was] making a lot of money there... There's no money, at his level, to be made in CMLL. Of course he could go there, of course there would be certain things, very rewarding for him because he could walk in there and be a main eventer and be a superstar there and perform before big crowds in main event matches all the time and all that. But he's used to American money."

Meltzer said he could see Andrade going back to CMLL for some one-offs. He pondered whether or not Andrade could go back to AEW, where he worked from March 2021 to the end of 2023. Meltzer said that at this point if he was AEW, he wouldn't be fond of using former WWE guys who have already proven they wanted to go back to WWE.

"He caused problems [in AEW] and he wasn't the most willing and cooperative person there," Meltzer said. "They got guys way better than him that are a lot more cooperative than him."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.