I was surprised and disappointed to see that former Maryland Championship Wrestling star Patrick Brink has been released by WWE. Brink, who at one point trained at Team 3-D’s wrestling academy, signed a WWE developmental deal last June and was working in Florida Championship Wrestling as Kaleb O’Neal.

According to a report on pwinsider.com, one of the reasons for O’Neal’s release was because he had heat with management for getting some new tattoos a few months ago. John Laurinaitis, WWE’s executive vice president of talent relations, apparently had told the talent during a meeting that they were prohibited from getting tattoos without permission from management.

I thought Brink, an Atholton graduate who grew up in Laurel, had what it took to make it in either WWE or TNA from the first time I met him three years ago.

He has had an unbelievably difficult year, as he had to deal with the deaths of his younger sister, grandmother and several close friends during that span. Hopefully he will rebound from this professional setback and get another opportunity to make it at a national level.