Tony Khan has elaborated on why he has recently released some talent.
Earlier this week, it came out that AEW had delivered their first batch of releases. Among those affected were Stu Grayson, Dasha Kuret, Anthony Henry, The Boys and Parker Boudreaux, with a total of ten people being let go on April 1. This surprised many as the company had previously made it a priority to let deals expire on their own rather than terminate them early, and Tony Khan has now explained why he chose to release some talent over the last few days.
Speaking on the Supercard of Honor post-show media scrum, Khan said that he has spent more money this year than originally planned and noted that he paid out what could be considered a year’s wage for most wrestlers on securing an entrance track for last night’s ROH show.
“I think that this year I have been very active not only in the free agent market, but in the production budget. There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year’s pay for most pro wrestlers in this business. And the budget not only with free agency, but production, is very high. And also we’re going into a contract year. And I plan to continue on being very active not only in free agency, but in the production of the show and producing great content. Going into this year, I have to look at where we’re at. I’d really spent more than I’d planned going into this year. So I really love our roster and where we’re at, I’m very supportive of everybody we have here and everyone who’s ever worked here. I think I really appreciate everything they did when they were here.”
-Tony Khan
Following their releases, The Boys hit back at Tony Khan’s claims that they no-showed some of their dates. Despite some being frustrated in light of being let go, the AEW Owner has emphasised that he’d happily take any of the released talent back under the right circumstances and doesn’t consider any bridges to be burned.
“And this particular group, it was not an easy set of choices to make, and in particular with this group of wrestlers we just released, I would be happy to take any of them back under the right circumstance. I have no bridge burned with any of them. And like I said, even with The Boys, I disagree with the point on travel and that in the history of ROH and working with us that there hadn’t been a couple times where they didn’t make it and made me change stuff, but on the other hand I really like both of them. And whether we agree or not about that point of contention, I think it’s regardless, I think they were great. They were a great part of Dalton’s act. I like both the Tates. I like everybody we released in this last batch recently and I’m wishing nothing but the best for any of them.”
-Tony Khan
(H/T @F4WOnline for the transcription)
It has already been stated by Khan that Anthony Henry is likely to rejoin the company following his recovery, though it remains to be seen as to whether any more of AEW’s former talent will make a return later down the line.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the recent AEW releases as soon as we hear more.
