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WWE Smackdown star Tye Dillinger announced on his Instagram account that he requested a WWE release at tonight's TV taping in New Orleans:
Dillinger, 38-years old, just returned to action several weeks back after hand surgery last year. He noted several days ago that he had tried to return to WWE NXT but had been turned down when he made that request.
In his announcement tonight, Dillinger stated, "I feel at this time this decision, as extremely difficult as it was, is what is best for myself and WWE. I wish to continue to grow as a performer and offer those paying hard earned money to watch a show I'm performing on, a little more of myself."
Dillinger was first signed to a WWE developmental deal back in 2002, billed at the time as Shawn Spears. He made his way to the WWE version of ECW as Gavin Spears in August 2008 but was released by January 2009. After working for several years on the independent circuit in the United States and his native Canada, Dillinger was given another WWE tryout and was signed to WWE NXT, where he worked as a veteran talent who was tasked with helping others grow as performers. He created the "Perfect 10" Tye Dillinger gimmick, which got over as a cult thing with NXT fans and eventually that popularity helped propel him to the main roster of WWE.
Dillinger returned to the main roster at the 2017 Royal Rumble, where naturally, he came out as number ten. He landed in a lower card position, but would at times get title shots against then-United States Champions AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura, but never truly received any sort of consistent push. He worked over the weekend on the Smackdown live events, putting over EC3.
While Dillinger announced in his Instagram post that he had requested his release, he did not state it had been granted.
It should be noted that Dillinger's original tag team partner in WWE developmental back in Ohio Valley Wrestling was current All Elite Wrestling Vice President Cody.
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