>>15069954He was making main roster money already. So he got called up years ago with the DOA T-Bar gimmick, and his pay got bumped. He was then sent back to NXT, but got to keep his pay. So this whole past run has been with main roster money. Ali was in a similar position, making that kind of money. In both cases, they simply didn't want to keep paying them that amount.
The following is headcanon, but I suspect that they called him up, somewhat in earnest, to see if there was anything they could do with him at that dollar amount. Maybe this was due to them being unhappy with what he was doing in NXT, or just thinking it wasn't the right fit, or whatever the case may be. And then upon getting called up, didn't really see value or a big enough change and decided to cut him loose. It's not unheard of, of guys being able to adapt better when increasing the pressure. They put Von on TV, for example, when he probably wasn't TV ready, but to push him to where they wanted him to be. Unfortunately in his case, he wasn't showing enough growth as far as their standards go.
Famously, Jim Cornette said Brock Lesnar wasn't fully clicking in OVW. But as soon as he hit the main roster, Brock turned out to be the guy who thrived while in the pocket.
