Gallus has been with WWE since 2018.
Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, and Wolfgang had first started in NXT UK. Coffey was more of the singles guy, so he competed for the NXT UK title on numerous occasions. However, Mark Coffey and Wolfgang are former NXT UK and NXT Tag Team Champions.
At one point, it seemed that the trio was primed for the main roster, but Gallus just randomly disappeared in December 2024. They made their returns down at Evolve, but last month, they were one of numerous names that was released from their contract.
Joe Coffey of Gallus sat down on the Refin’ It Up podcast and talked about his WWE stint. As you can imagine, he wasn’t thrilled about getting the call for his release, but he understands that’s just the nature of the business.
“I mean, it’s unfortunate. It happens and it’s the nature of the business. I’d literally just finished a (workout) on the stairmaster so I was delighted that that was finished, and then I got the number from Connecticut and I just -- you know, you know, and you’re just like, ‘Ah well,’ and it was pretty short in the conversation because I was just frustrated about it.
My brother was sitting outside. He just finished a tan session and he was in the car and the door opened and I went, ‘Well, I’ve just been released so, if you get released, I’m sorry. If not, good luck and stay out and smash it’ so, I was a bit angry about it. Went home… Frustrated about the way it panned out because moving your life over here from overseas isn’t an easy task, and you know, I’m always thankful for WWE and NXT for the opportunity. Learned so much, it was great. All the staff there are fantastic, the coaches are top-notch. I can’t say enough good things.
Apparently, there were plans to do something with Drew McIntyre on the main roster, but those plans clearly never came to fruition:
I just wish things had panned out a little bit differently and we heard for a long time we may be going to the main roster and doing something with Drew (McIntyre). Who knows? I understand Drew is on the run of a career and he’s doing some amazing stuff. But, we had little teases of it. We’re brought in to Survivor Series program and the Royal Rumble program as Gallus, the only NXT people and like, that’s really strange, and a lot of people were talking about it and we thought, oh, maybe it’s gonna happen soon. But it didn’t happen. It was just a little bit frustrating.
For myself, I feel a little bit personally frustrated because I feel as if I didn’t get to scratch the surface of what I can do in NXT. We were holding a lot of hands at times, which is totally fine and there’s a lot of people who aren’t from this world who are trying to learn and we were essentially helping teach them in the ring and so it was just a little bit frustrating, especially the body of work I had done up until then from NXT U.K. and I’ve been on TakeOvers and featured on TV quite a lot to my independent career where all over Europe, I was doing main events after main event and you know, was very much comfortable with that, and so it was a little bit frustrating that way but, it’s one of these things and it’s just on to the next chapter.
During his frustrations throughout his time in WWE/NXT, Joe wouldn’t mind going back there. He felt that he was very professional, perhaps too professional:
"If I ever make my way back there -- I’d like to think we’re on great terms. I was always very professional. Sometimes maybe a bit too professional and not being selfish enough. But, unfortunately, that falls under the good little soldier… which is a shame. But, even throwing it back to the WrestleMania weekend with The Rock, we were seen as very professional. We have done this job, we’re very mature and I think that’s one of the reasons why we got sent there because we’re very reliable, we’re very safe and we know what we’re doing.”
Joe would also talk about whether he was surprised about his release. He responded by saying “50/50”, noting that he had been off of television for a good period of time, but highlighting that his return to Evolve might’ve changed things. Check out the entire interview as the former WWE star talks about plenty of other things regarding his career.