WWE recently engaged in its latest round of talent releases, a list of names that included Cameron Grimes, who reacted to his firing in a teary clip shared to social media. Grimes was clearly caught off guard by his release, and according to a new report from Fightful Select, several people within WWE were also surprised.

Fightful's sources indicated that Grimes' skillset and track record weren't comparable to the other names who were released, allegedly due to their lack of long-term performance. Unlike many of those others, Grimes had recently been used on main roster TV and was frequently present backstage at TV tapings even when not being used. It was also pointed out that Grimes had visibly improved during his five years with WWE, and had managed to cultivate a fanbase during his time in "WWE NXT," where he got over most noticeably with his "richest man in NXT" gimmick, which included a storyline involving "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and culminated in Grimes winning DiBiase's signature Million Dollar Championship.

While his WWE career is over for the time being, Fightful claims there's an expectation that Grimes will be picked up quickly by independent promotions, who have already indicated that they plan to book him soon. Notably, Grimes was trained by fellow Cameron, North Carolina natives Matt and Jeff Hardy, the former of whom shared a sentimental message to the 30-year-old star on social media. The brothers have been recently under contract to AEW, but Matt is seemingly a free agent after turning down a new deal and Jeff's contract is reportedly up soon. All three men had previously been prominent in TNA Wrestling, to which Matt recently returned under his "Broken" persona.