Every WWE Release Of 2021 - Where Are They Now? (Five Years Later)
5. Kyle O'Reilly
Then: The final stretch of Kyle O'Reilly's WWE career was flat out odd. He'd been a key component in The Undisputed Era alongside Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish, but the group disbanded, several left and O'Reilly found himself teaming with Von Wagner instead. How did that even happen?!
It was Kyle himself who elected not to renew terms with WWE once his contract expired on 10 December 2021. Nobody knows for sure just how much interest there was on management's side to keep him around, but O'Reilly wasn't waiting to find out.
He had a plan.
Now: On 22 December 2021, Kyle revealed his hand by joining some of his good buddies over on the AEW side. To date, he's been part of the following factions: The Undisputed Elite, The Conglomeration and The Paragon. Yeah, it's pretty darn obvious that Tony Khan is just throwing things at a wall to see what might stick when it comes to workers like O'Reilly.
In fairness, Khan has stuck by Kyle despite some of his injury issues. They've claimed a fair chunk of time since he signed with All Elite over 4 years ago now. Before bowing out with his latest injury, O'Reilly defeated Jon Moxley in a 'No Holds Barred' bout at Full Gear 2025 on 22 November last year.
There's no firm timetable for his return just yet. Going through the injury wringer again has to suck for Kyle, especially after scoring a major pay-per-view win over Moxley like he did at Full Gear.