Pro wrestling veteran Jake Atlas signed with the WWE in 2019 after making an appearance on an episode of Undercover Boss on CBS in 2018 with Stephanie McMahon. Before signing with the WWE, Atlas competed on the Indies and had interest from AEW, but he ended up working under the NXT and 205 Live banner in the WWE until he was released on August 6th of last year reportedly due to budget cuts.
After his WWE release, Atlas announced that he was stepping away from professional wrestling to focus on his mental health and he also said that he wanted to explore completely different industries so he can find his passion again. Shortly after wanting to step away from pro wrestling, Atlas made his AEW debut, when he worked the Dark TV Tapings last December defeating Serpentico in Singles action. After the match, AEW President Tony Khan made his way out and shook Atlas’ hand.
All Elite Wrestling held TV Tapings for an episode of Rampage this past January immediately after AEW Dynamite from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where Atlas took on Adam Cole in a Singles Match and fans in attendance revealed that Atlas “blew out his knee” and has legitimately suffered an injury during the match. After suffering the injury midway through the match with Adam Cole, Jake had trouble putting weight on his knee and eventually had to tap out to a kneebar from Cole. He was later helped out of the ring by AEW officials.
On Monday, May 23, Atlas was arrested in Orlando, Florida due to a domestic incident with his partner of several years, but AEW never provided any comments on his arrest. Jake Atlas was arrested due to a physical altercation with his partner, which began as a verbal quarrel and soon became physical, with a nearby witness getting involved and separating the two parties. Atlas then followed his partner out to the parking lot and became physically aggressive with him by ripping out the clothing he had on as well as scratching his arm. Atlas then went home, but return to the apartment that he shared with his partner, so he could retrieve his dog. Atlas then refused to leave the apartment, despite a number of pleas from his partner. His partner then called 911 and police were dispatched. Atlas then refused to give his side of the story to the authorities and he instead chose to bad-mouth his partner and prior to him being arrest, Atlas was the aggressor.
Fightful Select reports that Jake Atlas will no longer be coming back to work for AEW and he was on a per-appearance deal with the company despite receiving the coveted “Jake Atlas is All Elite” graphic, which was paused after his injury. The report also mentions that Atlas was no longer connected to AEW following his injury and his arrest and his paused deal with All Elite Wrestling lapsed overtime.
Atlas has since signed a no-contact order that agrees him having no communication with his ex-partner and to keep a distance of 500 ft. from his ex-partner. Jake Atlas is set to be arraigned on June 28th at 7:30AM local time in an Orange County, Florida court room for the domestic incident. There has not been any official timetable for Atlas’ return to in-ring action, but he stated in late March that the estimated recovery time for his injury was at least 9 months and that he was trying his absolute best to return to in-ring action prior to that.
