As noted, Austin Aries was released from his WWE contract last week. Once WWE issued their statement, Aries took to his Twitter account and wrote, “It’s a beautiful day.” It was first reported by PWTorch that the former WWE Superstar had requested his release because he wasn’t happy in the company’s Cruiserweight division.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Newsletter that either the other cruiserweights nor the writers were unhappy to see him gone. If you recall, Aries had been expressing his frustration with losing over-and-over to Neville in their program that started at WrestleMania 33 earlier this year. It was reported that Aries wanted to be moved out of the Cruiserweight division due to him feeling that there was nowhere to go after his program with Neville ended.
Aries is under a 90-day non-compete agreement attached to his WWE contract, which expires on October 5, 2017. He can still work independent dates during the next few months until his WWE deal expires and will continue to collect his downside guarantee from WWE until that point. Since WWE doesn’t own the rights to his name, he can use it after the agreement expires. WWE will have to approve the indy dates that he works, which means that he can’t work anywhere he wants if the company doesn’t want him working after his non-compete expires.
His contract terms with the company are similar to a WWE-decided release and had he quit on his own, WWE could attempt to enforce the remainder of his contract. Aries signed in early 2016, and at the time it was reported that it was for three years, which means that WWE could have locked him down until January 2019.
