Drew McIntyre looking angry during his WWE entrance

Released WWE Superstar Believes CM Punk's Arrival Derailed NXT Faction's Main Roster Plans

Originally posted on The Sportster | By Josh Coulson | Last updated Oct 20, 2025 6:27 AM ET

Despite making a huge impact in NXT UK and then being brought over to regular NXT, all three members of Gallus were released by WWE earlier this year. You'd have thought Triple H would have eventually wanted to bring the trio up to the main roster, and one of its members, Wolfgang, believes that would have eventually happened had it not been for the surprise return of CM Punk.

Gallus Were Told Their Main Roster Call-Up Was Coming

According to Wolfgang, during an appearance on former WWE Superstar Mr. Kennedy's podcast Mic Check, he and Joe and Mark Coffey, the brothers who made up Gallus's ranks alongside him, were told in 2023 that their main roster call-up was imminent. "We were ready to go at the drop of a hat to the main roster, and I know for a fact that we were scheduled to be there," Wolfgang revealed.

"We were like three weeks out, and then three weeks came and they said ‘it’s actually like three months’ and the phrase they used was 'the can keeps getting kicked down the road’." Eventually, that can got kicked so far down the road that WWE either forgot about or scrapped whatever plans it had for Gallus on the main roster, and while Wolfgang doesn't blame Punk for the plans falling through, he does have a theory that his arrival distracted higher-ups from their Gallus plans.

WWE Seemingly Had Plans To Pair Up Gallus With Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre looking angry during his WWE entrance

Wolfgang believes that the plan was for him and the Coffey brothers to be brought up to the main roster to form a faction led by Drew McIntyre. The theory is rooted in Gallus's unexplained appearances in WWE programs for major events at the end of 2023 and into 2024.

"If you go look at the 2023 Survivor Series program for the main roster, or the 2024 Royal Rumble, there’s no one else in NXT in that, except for Gallus. And we’re right next to a full page spread of Drew McIntyre," Wolfgang revealed. Programs for WWE PLEs are printed months in advance. That would have meant deciding what went into those particular programs when WWE was considering putting Gallus with McIntyre.

Punk wound up returning to WWE to close Survivor Series 2023, and his focus for the bulk of 2024 was McIntyre, even though he suffered an injury that led to him getting sidelined for most of the year. There's a world in which having McIntyre use Gallus against Punk would have been really effective, but WWE either didn't like that idea or never considered it.

This article first appeared on The Sportster and was syndicated with permission.

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