Did you know why WWE fired Mark Andrews? Keep reading to find out and see if Mark Andrews is retired or plans to keep wrestling!
Mark Andrews was fired by WWE on August 18th, 2022, along with a host of other European WWE talent. This included his tag team partner, Flash Morgan Webster, and other top stars of the UK scene like Dave Mastiff and Sha Samuels. Andrews and Webster, as “Subculture”, made history at NXT UK: Cardiff (the first televised WWE event in Welsh history) by becoming the first ever Welsh wrestlers to win a championship in WWE, when they defeated Gallus and Grizzled Young Vets to win the United Kingdom Tag Team Championships.
The whole thing came as a huge shock. NXT UK was doing well on BT Sport and was just ready to tour again after the pandemic decimated any chance they had of being big in Great Britain. Andrews could have been a top face in the company or even had a second run as NXT UK Tag Team Champion, but it was Triple H that made the decision to release him from his WWE contract and send him back out into the world.
Welsh fans will feel particularly disappointed with Mark Andrews firing. As a native of Cardiff, he was fired just weeks before the first ever stadium show in Wales, at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. The event saw fellow Briton Drew McIntyre face Roman Reigns in the main event, but the lack of Welsh representation was a sore point for many fans.
So why was Mark Andrews fired by? Keep reading to find out why he was released and whether or not the former UK Tag Team Champion is retired from wrestling.
Mark Andrews Fired
Mark Andrews revealed that he was fired by WWE over a phone call, as he waited to here from the WWE as he saw wave after wave of his friends text him, revealing their releases. The former TNA star had been expecting to be released many times over the years, having spent the past five years signed to the company after his debut in the WWE’s United Kingdom Championship Tournament.
He was fired due to WWE shutting down the NXT UK division in mid 2022, in a bid to create new NXT Europe some time in the near future. While he would surely have been a valuable asset for the company to keep, his position was likely untenable due to issues travelling to-and-from mainland Europe due to the consequences of Brexit.
The Welsh Superstar was sacked just two weeks before Clash at the Castle, the first ever pay per view in his home city of Cardiff. He noted this was “weird timing” and that he should have been fired by WWE “a year ago!”
Speaking on his My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast on the BBC, Mark Andrews reflected on his firing by the WWE in August 2022.
“You just essentially sat there waiting for a call. It was a big group call where it was kind of hinted at that a few people might be losing their jobs. Then, the boys group chat, one by one, ‘I’ve been released.’ ‘I’ve been released.’ ‘Me too.’ ‘Me too.’ The thing is, when it comes to being a professional wrestler, especially when you’re working like a bigger company like WWE, you do expect these things.
I remember Drake Maverick texted me years ago when I first signed to TNA, ‘It’s not what you make, it’s what you save.’ That’s got to be your mindset being a pro wrestler because these things happen. The same with American football, they get drafted and they can get let go. It’s kind of the nature of the business. That’s something I’ve been prepared for.
There have been numerous occasions in the last six years working for the company where I felt I was going to get released. This one actually surprised me. All the other times, ‘we’re on our way out.’ This one, ‘Oh, two weeks before the big Welsh show? That’s weird timing. Surely this should have been a year ago,”
While he had a huge amount of talent, WWE just did not seem to value Mark Andrews as a top star in the company. He could have been brought over to the United States for NXT, like other NXT UK stars like WALTER, Kay Lee Ray or Ilja Dragunov were. However, he was let go and forgotten about by the WWE brass and will hopefully go on to make a bigger name for himself on the independent scene, if he keeps wrestling at all.
Is Mark Andrews Retired?
Mark Andrews last match in WWE was a first round defeat in the second WWE NXT United Kingdom Title Tournament. He lost to Mark Coffey in the opening match before he was unceremoniously fired by the WWE, likely never to return to the US to wrestle for them again.
With his pop-punk band Junior doing better than ever, many thought that the 30 year old could retire from wrestling after his release and focus on his music, as Chris Jericho did with Fozzy after leaving WWE in 2005. However, those fears have been quelled as Mark Andrews has not retired and has been wrestling on the independent scene since he was fired by WWE.
Since August 2022, Mark Andres has wrestled all over the UK and Ireland, competing both as a singles wrestler and as a tag team star. He returned to PROGRESS to team with fellow Welshman Eddie Dennis (also fired by the WWE) as FSU, while he reunited with Flash Morgan Webster to compete in OTT in Ireland. He has also wrestled accross England, Wales and Scotland as a singles wrestler, being able to travel around wrestling for the first time since the pandemic grounded him and rest of the UK scene.
He has been hyping up a revitalised Welsh Wrestling scene in recent weeks, with the country seeing a boom not felt since Orig Williams ran his own territory decades ago. He retweeted an event from the Outcast Wrestling Club promotion in Cardiff, tweeting out his support by saying “The Welsh scene is thriving right now, and the guys behind this have some awesome ideas. If you’re in the Cardiff area, make the effort to come to this show!“
Andrews is not advertised for the show, but it was nice of him to use his platform as a former WWE superstar to shout out his fellow Welshman in their attempt to bring the wrestling world back to it’s former glory.
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