Ridge Holland got "the call" from WWE a week after surgery

Ex-WWE Superstar Luke Menzies has opened up about his run on his personal YouTube channel. The former Ridge Holland spoke about what happened to his heat in NXT, his transition to Evolve, and his short stint in TNA, which ultimately led to his next injury. According to Menzies, there wasn't much time to recover before he was out of a job.

Menzies arrived in TNA in the fall, jumping future TNA World Champion Mike Santana in early September. This led to a match at Victory Road, where Santana emerged victorious. Just before he could really get the TNA run going, Menzies suffered a Lisfranc injury in his second match with the promotion.

Now, Menzies has spoken out on the moment the injury took place, and the unfortunate timing of WWE's phone call letting him know he wouldn't be re-signed. On YouTube, the former NXT Tag Champion posted a video titled, "What REALLY Happened to Ridge Holland..." breaking down the past few years in detail.

"Had a couple of good matches on Evolve. Found myself in TNA. Had a really really solid match with Mike [Santana]. Tons of fun. I had a fantastic time at TNA, it was great. Everyone was fantastic. The boys, everything. Can't say enough good things about that place. Unfortunately, the day after, what happened was I was going for a pop-up powerbomb on Moose. He jumped so high I thought I was gonna lose him. So I stepped forward and he came down. I stepped back, my foot twisted, and that was the injury. I recovered for about a week. The first day, that was when I got the call they weren't renewing my contract," Menzies stated. [8:57-9:44]

A GoFundMe was posted for Menzies and his family this week, with AEW and WWE stars donating to the 37-year-old husband and father of three. His contract was cut early days after criticizing the promotion.

Ridge Holland was a WWE PLE regular just a year ago

Ridge Holland returned to WWE NXT back in December 2023, immediately setting his sights on NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov. He'd go into an injury angle where he got into his own head after the career-ending injury to Big E. Eventually, he'd find purpose in Chase U, where he'd go on to win the NXT Tag Titles with Andre Chase.

Chase U would lose the titles back to Fraxiom, the team they'd beaten for them, three weeks later. Ridge turned on the entirety of Chase U after the fact, becoming one of the more important heels on the brand.

Menzies defeated his former tag partner and mentor, Chase, at last year's WWE Halloween Havoc. The pair would face off one last time, with Menzies again defeating Chase for a shot at the NXT Championship. He'd ultimately lose to Trick Williams, signifying the end of his main event push on Tuesday nights.