5 months ago
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While they never quite became household names like some fellow WWE stars, Mason D. Madden (formerly known as Mace) and Mansoor spent between five and seven years wrestling for WWE. Both Madden and Mansoor were released by WWE in September 2023 as part of the company's wave of lay-offs following the closure of its merger with UFC, and during a recent interview with WrestlingNewsCo, Madden revealed when he knew they were likely done.
"We were pitching idea after idea, but we were guys that weren't doing anything at the time, and I'm sure they needed salary cap room to bring back different guys," Madden said.
At that time, Mace and Mansoor were packaged with the former LA Knight, who had been re-branded to Max Dupri. Their group, Maximum Male Models, wasn't getting over with fans, and a decision was made to split them up.
"I think at some point, [Paul "Triple H" Levesque] said ... 'Hey, you want to move in the direction of going back to LA Knight?'" Madden stated. "When he was gone, we were like, 'Oh, we're done.'"
After that, Mace and Mansoor were taken off TV. However, Madden says the two refused to sit idly by and accept their paychecks while doing nothing. The two started up their own YouTube series, which led to them returning to TV for a short time.
"We were on 'SmackDown' at the time, and we switched to 'Raw,'" Madden continued. "They wanted to put us into a program with the Alpha Academy, which is the last thing we did. ... Unfortunately, [the] rug got pulled out from under us again."
The two have returned to the independent scene since, with plans to continue tagging together. Their team, known as MxM, is set to make its in-ring return later this week at Deadlock Pro Wrestling's Live 4 event.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WrestlingNewsCo with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
