Max Dupri Reportedly Removed from Maximum Male Models Stable

Friday’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown featured the debut of Maxxine Dupri, who is the former Sofia Cromwell in NXT. During the show, Dupri stated that her brother Max Dupri, former LA Knight in NXT, was not at the show and postponed this week’s Maximum Male Models fashion segment for next week’s show instead.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Max’s absence from the show was legitimate and not something storyline-related.

PWTorch’s Wade Keller reported that his sources stated that the reason for Max’s absence was due to WWE officials had recently changed their creative plans for him. These changes reportedly involved his removal from the Maximum Male Models group after he had “rubbed some people the wrong way” backstage and WWE officials feeling that he was not fitting in as the mouthpiece of the group.

Keller reported that Vince McMahon had made the decision a couple weeks ago to write Max out of the group and replace him with his sister Maxxine. Max reportedly knew ahead of time that he was going to be replaced when he gave his final promo for the group last week announcing the upcoming debut of his sister.