Backstage Update On Lars Sullivan's Latest WWE Absence

A certain High Chief is to blame for the Freak's latest leave.

by Andrew Pollard
Lars Sullivan
WWE.com

With Lars Sullivan having been absent from WWE TV since early November, there’s now an update on why the Freak has had yet another leave of absence from WWE programming.

Courtesy of the Wrestling Observer, the main reason for Sullivan’s latest disappearing act is down to a certain Roman Reigns. With Roman now dominating SmackDown with his bullying, merciless High Chief persona, WWE simply does not need another monster heel on the blue brand. As such, the company has no idea what to do with Sullivan right now.

Having signed with WWE back in 2013, the Freak’s career so far has been a stop-start one that’s been dogged by controversy.

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It was over two years ago that both Raw and SmackDown began airing vignettes advertising Lars Sullivan’s imminent arrival, yet here in 2020 we’ve barely seen anything of the hulking behemoth.

That planned main roster bow was delayed after Sullivan took time off due to anxiety issues, and his eventual debut in April 2019 was shortly followed up by a major knee injury. In addition to this, previous racist, sexist and homophobic forum posts of the real-life Dylan Miley surfaced last year, and it also came to light that his younger days saw Miley appear in adult movies.

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What’s next for Lars Sullivan remains to be seen, but it doesn’t appear that he’ll be returning to SmackDown any time soon.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.