Abstract: Unloading is one of the key drivers behind the damage evolution and instability failure of surrounding rock in deep roadways. Under the complex environment characterized by "five-high and two-disturbance" conditions, the excavation of deep roadways often leads to engineering challenges such as crack propagation, severe deformation, degradation of structural bearing capacity, and support failure. Focusing on the main theme of failure and stability control of unloaded surrounding rock, this paper reviews research progress in the mechanical studies, theoretical analysis, and control technologies related to the instability of unloaded surrounding rock in deep roadways. In terms of unloading experiments, the development of testing equipment and methods for biaxial, conventional triaxial, true triaxial, and similarity simulation tests is summarized, and the mechanical response, crack propagation, and failure evolution of surrounding rock under unloading conditions considering stiffness effects, multi-field coupling, and disturbance impacts are investigated. Regarding unloading theory, the crack propagation mechanism of static damage and failure in surrounding rock is explored using stress intensity factors. Meanwhile, a dynamic damage constitutive model for high-stress rock masses is proposed, and an analytical solution for the unloading stress field around an excavated roadway is derived. For the control of unloaded surrounding rock, compensation control techniques for roadway surrounding rock, including surface support, internal anchoring, grouting modification, and directional pressure relief, are categorized from the perspectives of stress constraint compensation, structural bearing compensation, and stress environment compensation. Based on analysis on existing issues in the control of roadway surrounding rock in underground coal mines, future research should further explore the multi-field coupling mechanisms and intelligent prediction methods in deep mining, intelligent adaptive control technologies for surrounding rock, and functional reconstruction of surrounding rock for coordinated multi-resource extraction.