Tony Kahn and AEW have made an enormous contribution to professional wrestling over the last three years, but there’s always a downside to doing business whether it’s sports, entertainment, or sports entertainment.
Keith Lee debuting for AEW last on last night’s Dynamite was a thing of beauty and we’re excited to see him with a major company again, but there’s going to be a downside to this at some point.
For the last couple of years, we’ve all viewed AEW as a mecca of sorts for wrestlers to go to when any releases happened, but the reality is there’s only so much money and room for people in any company.
And as more and more free agents are becoming available and contracts in AEW are coming to an end there has to be some give somewhere.
Changing of the guard
Wrestlers coming and going with companies are like sports players leaving one team for another in free agency, or movie and television stars moving from one project to another.
Everyone hopes they find a place to spend their entire careers or a company they can stay with until they retire.
Unfortunately, wrestling, like anything else, is a business that has to keep growing and stay fresh to remain competitive, so when free agents like Bray Wyatt, Jeff Hardy, Johnny Gargano, John Morrison, and Killer Kross come looking thigs will get interesting.
Any company would be lucky to have a couple of all of them, and AEW is most of the fans’ choice to sign them. Unfortunately, there are other talents that are nearing the end of their contracts so decision will have to be made.
Tony Kahn spoke about this and admitted he can’t renew all of the contracts that are going to run out. Special thanks to @sportsninety for the transcript.
“When we started a lot of people had contracts that were a couple of years long and a lot of them are coming up. I have really tried hard to be very considerate of the people on the roster, especially going through the pandemic. I kept a lot of people under contract even though I wasn’t necessarily using them on television because I wanted them to still have paying work. Really only two places were running and the other place was cutting people left and right. Now with so many wrestlers coming in, I can’t renew all the contracts. I’ve had to make some tough choices based on ability, fan response, or both. I try to maintain the best roster I can for the company and fans.”
Every #AEW signing of 2021#AllElite pic.twitter.com/HTtfE7pvEx
— Stewart Lawson (@SLawson1417) December 31, 2021
Making a splash
Tony’s thoughts are understandable as any chance to add more talent that can be a difference maker is important, but it’ll also leave others out in the cold.
While nothing has been set in stone yet, it’s been reported that Tony would like to renew the contracts for the original group of AEW wrestlers but that may not happen.
There are a few we haven’t seen on TV in a while after they struggled to find their groove with the fans. They include Marko Stunt, Kip Sabian, Joey Janela, and others that remain under contract.
Unlike the WWE, AEW doesn’t want to release anyone due to budget reasons and have only done some for disciplinary reasons previously.
Still, these and more could be on the bubble when it comes time for their contracts to be renewed. There’s definitely been a shifting of the guard in AEW and more are likely on the way.
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