WWE superstar Austin Aries has come to terms on his release, the promotion announced on Friday. 

Aries, 39, who was born Daniel Solwold Jr., signed with WWE in January 2016 and most recently competed on Raw and 205 Live as a cruiserweight title contender in a feud with champion Neville. 

"WWE wishes Aries the best in all of his future endeavors," the company said in a statement posted on WWE.com. 

Aries was expected to challenge Neville during Friday's house show at New York's Madison Square Garden until being recently replaced by Cedric Alexander. The Wrestling Observer reported it was Aries who asked for his release. 

One hour before WWE broke the news on its Twitter account Friday, Aries tweeted out: 

Just seven minutes after WWE tweeted the story, Aries reacted with a trio of emojis. 

A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Aries built his name on the independent scene. He was a two-time world champion and one-time world tag team champion (with Roderick Strong) during a trio of stints with Ring of Honor. 

Aries enjoyed his biggest pre-WWE success during a pair of runs with TNA (now Impact Wrestling). A six-time X division champion, Aries also held the TNA world heavyweight and world tag team championships (with Bobby Roode).  

After signing with WWE, Aries' initial run came in NXT. In August 2016, Aries suffered a broken orbital socket yet transitioned beautifully to a commentary role upon the launch of the WWE's cruiserweight division and 205 Live show. 

Aries enjoyed a memorable feud with Neville from March to June of this year, including a highly regarded kickoff show match at WrestleMania 33. During an appearance in June on CBS Sports' "In This Corner with Brian Campbell" podcast, Aries talked about the feud. 

"I'm extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish over the course of the past few months," Aries said. "Me and Neville aren't dissimilar cats at the end of the day. We both have a chip on our shoulders. We both have probably been counted out at times in our career by the same types of people and we both have a real love and passion for professional wrestling and the art form that it is. 

"So to be able to go and invest the emotion and the time and the story with someone like that for a few months on the platform we have been able to do it on just has been a great experience. And, again, I can't say enough good things about him as a talent, as a person. I tip my cap to him and everything that he has accomplished."

Aries is currently touring in promotion of his first memoir entitled "Food Fight: My Plant-Powered Journey From The Bingo Halls To The Big Time." He called his signing with WWE in 2016 as "a huge, huge cherry on top" of his 17-year career. 

"I had done everything I really wanted to accomplish and the last thing I hadn't done was make it to WWE," Aries said in June. "I think for some of us who were on the other side of 30 and just kind of knowing [WWE] policies over the years, I think you had to be comfortable knowing maybe it wasn't in the cards for you for whatever reason, which I was OK with. 

"But then when the opportunity presented itself, you take it and you don't look back if you believe in yourself and what you do, that's the opportunity that you take every day of the week and you bet on yourself. That's the pinnacle, that's the place you become a household name and you can really cement yourself in a legacy moving forward."

During a June appearance on Sirius XM's "Busted Open," Aries spoken openly about nagging injuries he expected would sideline him. 

"I've got some stuff going on, but just to be fair you could probably say that for a lot of the locker room," Aries said. "It's kind of part of what we do, I don't think anyone is ever 100 percent. So I got a couple things going on and obviously at this point it might be a good time to take a little break, which really could consist of two days to just adjust some of those things, try and get my mind and my body right and then come back and figure out what's gonna be next and what the direction's gonna be."