Apollo Crews Opens Up On Identity Outside WWE After Release

Apollo Crews Reflects On Identity Outside WWE And Finding Himself After Release

Former WWE United States and Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews (Uhaa Nation) has opened up about his transition into life after WWE, discussing the mental and physical challenges of rediscovering his identity outside the squared circle.

Following his WWE release in April after an 11-year tenure with the company, Crews sat down with Chris Van Vliet on Insight. During the conversation, he explained how deeply tied his sense of self had become to his wrestling career and how physical exertion helped him process the change:

“11 years is a long time to be tied up in the company. And a lot of my identity was inside WWE. I was like, ‘I need to figure out who I am outside of this company.’ I went and bought a bicycle. I’ve been doing a lot of reading already, but I got into David Goggins’ book, which I’d read already ‘Can’t Hurt Me.’ I dove into that again, and a lot of what he talks about is finding himself through these physical challenges that you know, 99.9% of the world just couldn’t do.”

Crews noted that pushing his body to its limits served as a primary coping mechanism while navigating the complex emotions that followed his departure:

“I wasn’t saying that I was gonna run a marathon or anything like that, but I was like, ‘Let me push myself to the physical limit and see if I can find out who I am outside of this place.’ You know, and I just was—I think it’s my way of coping with these emotions or with the release, and it was hard because I had a real life, you know. It wasn’t just me by myself where I could just sit in a room and be depressed or whatever, or let me deal with all these emotions on my own.”

Beyond the physical grind, Crews highlighted how the shift in routine presented an opportunity to step back, re-evaluate his priorities, and focus on his family:

“I had the time to do things that I really didn’t have the time for before. One thing is waking up and it’s always felt like I had somewhere to be when I was with the company. But it’s nice to wake up and be like, ‘Okay, I don’t really have anything.’ Again, I have duties as a father, but I don’t really have anything anywhere to be for myself. So I wanted to take a lot of time for myself and just figure out who I was. And I don’t even know if I’ve gotten all the way to that point yet.”

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