Facts☝️Kirkland does more testing and provides better specs for their stuff than others. They don't relabel, but rather have these manufacturers make 1 offs for them.
I can’t believe some of these guys were under contract, even if they’re for like $65,000 or something. I thought only the 200 or so on their roster page were actually contracted talent. Now it seems like there could be hundreds more!
It's weird, especially considering that Tony never bothered with releases and prided himelf in simply letting the contracts run out, in contrast to WWE.
That's what makes what Punk said even funnier like geeze you're so scared to be a boss and be a bad guy that you refuse to fire people (including people doing dark matches) but the moment Punk says it publicly you quickly do it to show you have a backbone.
Tony only did that because he thought it made him look good to waste his money and would make people like him now that people are openly talking about it in particular punk not people like us on these message forums or people he thinks are just haters like Cornette— he’s embarrassed and he’s letting these guys go which is probably what he’s always wanted to do he has no self-esteem whatsoever. He’s so concerned with what other people think of him that now he’s actually doing it because he feels like he’s been me to look like a fool.
I don't mean to denigrate anyone but I haven't heard of any of the people mentioned so far. Were they with ROH rather than AEW?
April 1st probably isn't the smartest time to *finally* make an effort to trim the roster and get the budget under control like a serious, grown-up company. It's not a huge deal but it really does seem like absolutely *every* time Khan even tries to get something right, he does something obnoxiously daft with it.
Still, while I don't want anyone to lose out on their livelihood, as a wrestling company AEW is such a mess that it really needs to rein itself in and learn to focus. Maybe this is the start of it figuring that out.
It’s one of the worst times to make big announcements, especially ones that impact people’s livelihoods. Imagine getting this phone call or email and wondering at first if it’s a prank.
They’re just proving Punk’s point even more, that these people have no idea how to run an actual business.
Edit: typo
It's such a bad day to get any serious sort of news. My dad died on April 1st a few years ago and it's a bit of a joke now "like really, that's the day you go" but I just wasn't up for any sort of April fools jokes for a few years after that. TK should have at least waited a day before giving these people the bad news.
I half expected it to be an April Fools thing with names like Adam Cole, Kenny, etc. Slim J and Parker Boudreaux? That’s a tougher sell for an April Fools joke.
Lol, I didn't even consider the April foolishness. Is it good or bad form to end with "I regretfully inform you that this is NOT an April fool. All the best in your future with Endeavor..."
I'll try to keep this updated. So far it's:
Stu Grayson (The only semi-professional looking Dork Order alumnus)
Dasha Gonzalez (Collision ring announcer)
The Boys (of Dalton Castle fame).
Slim J (some tiny guy who was on TV once)
**update:**
Jose The Assistant (~~I think he was with Andrade?~~ Nope. Apparently with Rush. )
Parker Boudreaux (the mashed potato statue of Brock Lesnar)
Anthony Henry (apparently he's Mayor McCheese's partner in the WorkHorsemen)
Gravity (everyone knew that one would fall sooner or later)
Jora Johl (no idea who the fuck that is)
**updated update:**
That is reportedly it for today. Whether that means it's the last of the cuts overall or if there will be more to come later in the week, who knows.
The boys ,,,, that one hurts. That was part of dalton.castle. a talent that tony should be putting on dynamite. Because he is entertaining. Great job tony
The "Boys" and Dasha are the most surprising to me so far. Maybe Castle is changing his gimmick or he is gone too.
A lot of the others are no big surprise, Johl was mostly on Dark doing jobs and maybe on ROH later on. José is no surprise cause he was an Andrade guy and then hung on the Lucha faction where Preston Vance still used him as a manager.
I didn't even know Gravity was fully signed to AEW/ROH. I had a soft spot for Slim J, tbh. But the Trustbusters never worked out, lol.
Dasha is a weird one for sure. If anything I would have expected Barbrady to be the first backstage interviewer to go. If you fire Lexi you risk upsetting Big Bill and that might throw the whole carefully crafted tag division into turmoil!
>Gravity (everyone knew that one would fall sooner or later)
I see what you did there. :D
Isn't Boudreaux the with the "motor your ass" promo or was that one of the Bear Country guys?
I've lost track of all this nonesense!
Lol I'm reading these names and I'm like... who the fuck are these people?
No offense, cause I'm sure they are potentially good people and deserve work, but uhhhhh
Says something.
Oh fuck off Tony, Dasha fine as hell, she was one of the only highlights of the few AEW shows I been to lol
Meanwhile their main shitty ring announcer dude probably not even on the hot seat
You underestimate Tony's propensity to overpay. He probably saved like $4.7 million. If he can make $95 million more worth of cuts, they might almost break even this year!
Anthony Henry is injured by the way. so the good guys who are friends with all of the talent and love everyone and are great for the business just broke a rule that WWE wouldn’t even break. They have released a man while he is injured.
And he says on his own tweet, announcing the injury that he was supposed to be in the tagteam tournament, so Tony would know that he was injured because he would’ve had to restructure the tag teams tournament and put a different team in so Tony can’t even claim ignorance. But even if he could claim ignorance, that’s also absurd because then he would have to say I didn’t know that my guy was injured. There’s literally no correct answer here.[the tweet about the injury](https://x.com/antnyhenry/status/1767385520718438490)
Tony was also unaware that Miro was injured....until Miro tweeted about it. Boss/Booker of the year, right there. I mean, maaaaaybe your roster is way too fucking big if it's possible to lose a big fucking Bulgarian motherfucker like Rusev/Miro in the weeds of it all.
I have the feeling the financials look terrible and he's had to dip into other funding sources. Or he knows he isn't getting renewed or he's getting an NXT type deal.
Totally expect more people to be fired. There is no way the guy can continue on with the absurd expenditures that place may have.
This is what it feels like if AEW was a regular company.
But what are 2 or even 10 million to Tony? I'm sure he's had to pay for a lot of stuff out of his own pocket. And getting rid of dozens of jobbers will save him comparatively little money considering what he blew on bringing in Okada, Ospreay and Mone just recently.
Why does he care about his financials now all of a sudden? Unless somehow his dad or WBD told him to make certain changes.
I feel like Shad or his people had been telling Tony for a while to cut people here and there and Tony being Tony, he waited until he was forced to do it.
For Khan to be one of those "we're a family friendly product" types he certainly has a lot of pornst...I mean adult content creators signed to his company.
Genuinely I feel like them releasing Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews and letting them go back would be a good decision. Most of the HOB stuff they do doesn’t even involve Malakai/Buddy anymore. It’s almost always Brody King and Julia Hart. Letting Malakai and Buddy go back saves them a huge amount of money, and they can simply fill those empty spots with, I don’t know, people they are willing to actually book in matches? It’s genuinely annoying seeing them not booked often.
I do not understand why Buddy Matthews is not featured more. It looks like they are getting ready to do a program with Malakai Black and Adam Copeland.
TK is really taking that “Tony’s a nice guy not a boss” Punk criticism to heart apparently.
Actually this is kind of in poor taste, I’d rather not see anyone get released. If they aren’t re-signed, that’s a different topic. I’m not trying to say AEW can’t release anyone as a business, just that it sucks to be on bad end of the release.
It’s about time, just waiting for cutlet to get dropped. Being fair to tony, this has been a long time Criticism of him so when he does it he gets joked on. Kinda a lose-lose for him lol
Shoutout to *Present\_Inspector\_61 -* a true prophet amongst us! You were onto something, man.
>Tony should just cut 20 people tomorrow to show things are changing
I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me this was the fallout from the Punk interview.
Tony is cooking again... Popcorn, please!
Ha the dumbass realized he blew too much money on a talentless nobody people don't care about and he's gotta free up some cash so he can still suck off the bucks.
But damn I'm kinda surprised about Dasha and The Boys. Honestly I always thought Dasha was one of the better ring announcers these days.
So I guess Tony firing The Boys means he's gonna change Dalton Castle's gimmick and completely fuck him up. To me Castle is one of the few that has been able to make that kind of gimmick work, he's one of those I desperately wish someone like Dusty Rhodes could've got his hands on. Could you imagine Dalton Castle surrounded by like 50 of "the boys" strutting down the Wrestlemania ramp while Elton John plays live up on the stage, it's the definition of a Wrestlemania entrance.
Dalton and Pretty Deadly as an ass-kicking babyface stable under Dusty would have been friggin great. Put them up against the bullying stable of Gallus or Drew Gulak's Crew and I think Dusty could have EASILY made you care about every single person in the angle.
Dasha wasn't a great announcer to me and the fact she was announcer for Big Business made me feel like I was watching an episode of Collision. I can't believe she was fired and they should have kept her as a journalist
Wasn't Stu released before, only to come back after a short while? He then wrestled a couple of matches and hasn't been seen since then?
Question is why would Tony even bother? If he releases 20 guys like Stu that will only save him 2 or 3 million. In a time of increasing revenue and a huge incoming tv deal nonetheless.
>Wasn't Stu released before, only to come back after a short while? He then wrestled a couple of matches and hasn't been seen since then?
You are correct, Sir!
Something must've gotten into Tony... the timing is spectacular...
that's what i was going to ask. probably, his dark order buds tried to keep him but he really didn't do much when he got brought back from what i remember. when you look at guys like this, i think it's better just to give them a night's pay to have them job rather than a fulltime contract if tony doesn't have long term plans. the only people that should have contracts are those that are stars and have a plan written in their contract.
You're assuming a huge new TV deal. The only whiff he have of anything is Tony saying on Twitter they're going to have a great deal. And I can totally see WBD spinning a yarn about "o yeah gonna be a tremendous deal we've got for you" and now actual numbers are being exchanged and it ain't pretty
The last count I had of their roster page had them at about 200 wrestlers (both the men and the women). Apparently, he’s got dozens (hundreds?) more signed based on these Dark/ROH jobbers I’ve never even heard of getting cut.
In all reality, he could cut 110-120 wrestlers and still have more than enough to run a promotion.
Should have started at the top with the highest paid stooge in Jericho and then went down the list. Probably could have cut 50 or more and TV wouldn’t change
Jericho and the Bucks should have been at the top of the "Get the fuck out" list long, LONG ago. None of them are essential, none of them are irreplaceable, and none of them draw numbers or new eyes. From there, you start granting releases to anyone who's truly upset at that decision, and anyone else who you've not had use for in a while. Guys like Malakai and Miro...let them go, too. If they'd be happier in the WWE, let them try to go back, if they can. They're not helping your numbers either unless you consistently use them and Tony isn't so...let them walk. I could go on, but yeah. You're exactly right, that the cuts that would do the most good, creatively and financially, are at the top.
April Fool's is probably the worst time to release people. Imagine you pick up your phone and get a call telling you that you are released, only to wonder if it's a malicious prank.
And really? Releasing a guy who's currently injured? Even WWE wouldn't do that. Absolute clown show.
He isn’t even making smart roster cuts lol. He’s just cutting randos. If you’re going to shed salary then she’d salary and stop messing around cutting people we’ve never seen/heard of. Like Nyla Rose? Keith Lee? Paige VanZant? Jake Hager? Jeff Hardy? But no he cuts some goof named Jara instead. Ok that’s cool but let’s actually start trimming that fat here Jacksonville Dixie
If he doesn't fire Adam Page, all these cuts are pointless. Granted, a lot of their contracts were pointless too but that's a different point.
Wow, though: Dasha AND the Hype Man? Tony hates Latin X - Print it.
This is where Mean Gene pops in my mind. "It doesn't read like the Who's Who; more like the Who's That."
(No lie, Grayson wasn't bad. They could have done something with him in ROH.)
Are you going to make actual cuts that could fix your shithouse company, Tony?
Nope?
Well then, fuck you and your mama. Let me know when you realize your "friends" are only there to cornhole your daddy's checkbook, Herb Abrams Jr. I'll throw a parade.
I mean about time. He has to act tough and commit to being the boss once in his time with Aew.
Punk just stared the obvious, what’s been said a million times and confirmed a lot of it as fact.
Dasha was a bad announcer for me and the fact she was announcer for Big Business made me feel like I was watching Collision and they should have kept her being a journalist. Now who's going to replace her on Collision? Tony Chimel, Justin Roberts or the ROH announcer?
Well hey even if it is way too late it’s good they’re finally starting to do the right thing to trim down the roster a bit. Let’s give them a hand when they do something right and be positive to encourage more in the future. Maybe they’ve seen the light.
Not only did he go back on his word, but they’re in damage control mode. Sammy Guevara is on X kissing ass, and AEW has restricted commenting on their instagram pages.
The Boys released during an ROH storyline between Johnny and Dalton, lol.
Stu Grayson why the fuck bring him back in the first place?
Parker Boudreaux will only be remembered for that hilarious overselling in the Mogul Affiliates segment. That guy has no hope.
Jose the Assistant I only remember as that guy who stands behind Rush.
And Gravity has been forgotten again. PAC is safe I guess.
Man tiny finally cut some people making checks off him to do nothing? I’m shocked but not surprised. Jake Hager still has a job and all he does is love his hat. Feel bad for the guys not getting a free ride anymore.
They have more than 120 wrestlers under contract. They 5 hours of TV tapings a week, and that's it, no house shows. They could easily do that with 40 wrestlers, without having anyone work twice in a week.
Only 3 years too late. Edit: It’s Dark jobbers. LOL. WBD told Tiny to trim the fat and he cut Gravity and Kirkland Brand Brock.
Every dark jobber but Cole Cabana
I heard Phillip Brooks got him fired.
Hangman still is unsure if Colt works there or not.
DAE use the Internet and go to Ring of Honor's website?
Hey, that's an insult to Kirkland!
"TEMU Lesnar" is more accurate.
Kirkland is generous, that dude was Dollar Tree Brock.
Mock Lesnar was my favourite
Brock Lesser or the Least Incarnate were my favs
Least Incarnate... hysterical.
WWE has the Ring General.. AEW had Dollar General
Man, hell with you. Kirkland is one of the top tier store brands fr. A lot of their stuff is better than the name brand shit
Facts☝️Kirkland does more testing and provides better specs for their stuff than others. They don't relabel, but rather have these manufacturers make 1 offs for them.
Kirkland chocolate milk is a lowkey banger once in a while
😳… chocolate milk..?
Oh just you wait sunshine that shit is *nice*
I can’t believe some of these guys were under contract, even if they’re for like $65,000 or something. I thought only the 200 or so on their roster page were actually contracted talent. Now it seems like there could be hundreds more!
I want to get payed 65k a year to not be on tv.
Lmao. Punk says they don’t care about the business end and Tony reacts by cutting guys
It's weird, especially considering that Tony never bothered with releases and prided himelf in simply letting the contracts run out, in contrast to WWE.
That's what makes what Punk said even funnier like geeze you're so scared to be a boss and be a bad guy that you refuse to fire people (including people doing dark matches) but the moment Punk says it publicly you quickly do it to show you have a backbone.
I actually thought his honoring of contracts was admirable. It was signing useless jobbers to NEW contracts that made me think he's a pinhead.
the most admirable part was when the contracts were expiring, and the talent had 0 idea of what the plan is, and Tiny refused to speak with them
Are we sure Tony Khan’s dad did not hear?
This was theory, Shad heard and was pissed. Tony finally started to release people
Wait, I am paying for “toys” you aren’t even playing with? No, son, you don’t have to tell them, but someone does.
Tony only did that because he thought it made him look good to waste his money and would make people like him now that people are openly talking about it in particular punk not people like us on these message forums or people he thinks are just haters like Cornette— he’s embarrassed and he’s letting these guys go which is probably what he’s always wanted to do he has no self-esteem whatsoever. He’s so concerned with what other people think of him that now he’s actually doing it because he feels like he’s been me to look like a fool.
Tony promised to not do cuts..iirc So.. good job Tony
Tony: "I'll show Punk I'm a business man, Tweedledum, TweedleDee, get me my finest RED crayon!" Bucks: "Yes master"
By Gawd he's broken in half (JR looking at Tinys Crayons)
He cut loosers you don't see on tv aew sucks get over it
I don't mean to denigrate anyone but I haven't heard of any of the people mentioned so far. Were they with ROH rather than AEW? April 1st probably isn't the smartest time to *finally* make an effort to trim the roster and get the budget under control like a serious, grown-up company. It's not a huge deal but it really does seem like absolutely *every* time Khan even tries to get something right, he does something obnoxiously daft with it. Still, while I don't want anyone to lose out on their livelihood, as a wrestling company AEW is such a mess that it really needs to rein itself in and learn to focus. Maybe this is the start of it figuring that out.
It’s one of the worst times to make big announcements, especially ones that impact people’s livelihoods. Imagine getting this phone call or email and wondering at first if it’s a prank. They’re just proving Punk’s point even more, that these people have no idea how to run an actual business. Edit: typo
It's such a bad day to get any serious sort of news. My dad died on April 1st a few years ago and it's a bit of a joke now "like really, that's the day you go" but I just wasn't up for any sort of April fools jokes for a few years after that. TK should have at least waited a day before giving these people the bad news.
I half expected it to be an April Fools thing with names like Adam Cole, Kenny, etc. Slim J and Parker Boudreaux? That’s a tougher sell for an April Fools joke.
Lol, I didn't even consider the April foolishness. Is it good or bad form to end with "I regretfully inform you that this is NOT an April fool. All the best in your future with Endeavor..."
Heard the craziest April fools today.. Someone was saying AEW and New Japan were doing a PPV at Arthur Ashe Stadium 🤣🤣🤣 Legit almost fell for it
this is comment of the year
I'll try to keep this updated. So far it's: Stu Grayson (The only semi-professional looking Dork Order alumnus) Dasha Gonzalez (Collision ring announcer) The Boys (of Dalton Castle fame). Slim J (some tiny guy who was on TV once) **update:** Jose The Assistant (~~I think he was with Andrade?~~ Nope. Apparently with Rush. ) Parker Boudreaux (the mashed potato statue of Brock Lesnar) Anthony Henry (apparently he's Mayor McCheese's partner in the WorkHorsemen) Gravity (everyone knew that one would fall sooner or later) Jora Johl (no idea who the fuck that is) **updated update:** That is reportedly it for today. Whether that means it's the last of the cuts overall or if there will be more to come later in the week, who knows.
The boys ,,,, that one hurts. That was part of dalton.castle. a talent that tony should be putting on dynamite. Because he is entertaining. Great job tony
Dalton can just get new boys
Taven and Bennett are still there
But those boys have the ring and Character work down. They have a chemistry that is not really duplicated
Apparently they are in the middle of a story with Dalton and Johnny TV. This Sunday. .weird timing
The "Boys" and Dasha are the most surprising to me so far. Maybe Castle is changing his gimmick or he is gone too. A lot of the others are no big surprise, Johl was mostly on Dark doing jobs and maybe on ROH later on. José is no surprise cause he was an Andrade guy and then hung on the Lucha faction where Preston Vance still used him as a manager. I didn't even know Gravity was fully signed to AEW/ROH. I had a soft spot for Slim J, tbh. But the Trustbusters never worked out, lol.
I am surprised by Dasha. As far as I am concerned, they could have added Lexi Nair to the list.
Dasha is a weird one for sure. If anything I would have expected Barbrady to be the first backstage interviewer to go. If you fire Lexi you risk upsetting Big Bill and that might throw the whole carefully crafted tag division into turmoil!
Oh wow. I just read on Wikipedia that she is dating him. Also, DDP was married to her mother for five years.
I didn't even know that about her mother and DDP, what a small world.
Yeah, her mother is actually in the DDP Yoga videos.
Stu Grayson is much better away from the Dark Order. Tony doesn't know how to utilize talent. How did he put together the Acclaimed?
>Gravity (everyone knew that one would fall sooner of later) I see what you did there.
"The mashed potato statue of Brock Lesnar" lmao
The Boys 😭
Jose was in the goober faction now with rush
noted
“rush is back and he’s gonna get a huge push”
Shocked Parker was signed for as long as he was. Geesus
>Gravity (everyone knew that one would fall sooner or later) I see what you did there. :D Isn't Boudreaux the with the "motor your ass" promo or was that one of the Bear Country guys? I've lost track of all this nonesense!
Boodrough is the one who looks like lesnar
Wasn't he also one of Swerve's henchmen at one point?
Yep, along with the face tattoo guy that never had a match.
Put some respect on Trench’s name
Bear Country Greasy was the rabid salad tosser.
Anthony Henry is actually a loss. He’s talented. I think he’s injured, too, which is kind of a dick move.
Mashed potato statue of Brock lesnar 💀💀💀😂
>Jora Johl (no idea who the fuck that is) I'll be real with you, I don't think any AEW fan knew who the fuck that was. And they follow everything.
Surprised about Dasha. She’s gorgeous and a good announcer IMO.
Was probably a known friend of Punk’s
These are all jobbers
Lol I'm reading these names and I'm like... who the fuck are these people? No offense, cause I'm sure they are potentially good people and deserve work, but uhhhhh Says something.
I remember at one point last year AEW had close to 150 wrestlers signed.
Oh fuck off Tony, Dasha fine as hell, she was one of the only highlights of the few AEW shows I been to lol Meanwhile their main shitty ring announcer dude probably not even on the hot seat
I hope she goes back to WWE.
How much hair gel does Justin Roberts use? I don't think his hair would move in an EF-5 tornado.
He just clips it on like lego hair
Excalibur should've been in this spot.
Tony has saved at least $47,000 with these cuts.
He needs the money... to buy more Tarps.
Man's got Ted Turner money!
Correction, Shad Khan has Ted Turner money. Tony just has a collection of action figures.
You underestimate Tony's propensity to overpay. He probably saved like $4.7 million. If he can make $95 million more worth of cuts, they might almost break even this year!
Anthony Henry is injured by the way. so the good guys who are friends with all of the talent and love everyone and are great for the business just broke a rule that WWE wouldn’t even break. They have released a man while he is injured.
I thought sports companies generally avoided doing that because it was an easy way to get sued?
And he says on his own tweet, announcing the injury that he was supposed to be in the tagteam tournament, so Tony would know that he was injured because he would’ve had to restructure the tag teams tournament and put a different team in so Tony can’t even claim ignorance. But even if he could claim ignorance, that’s also absurd because then he would have to say I didn’t know that my guy was injured. There’s literally no correct answer here.[the tweet about the injury](https://x.com/antnyhenry/status/1767385520718438490)
Tony was also unaware that Miro was injured....until Miro tweeted about it. Boss/Booker of the year, right there. I mean, maaaaaybe your roster is way too fucking big if it's possible to lose a big fucking Bulgarian motherfucker like Rusev/Miro in the weeds of it all.
Tony didn't even know Miro was out of the country.
"He wasn't even ***there***!"
If TK booked in the 90s he totally would have pulled an Easy E and fired Henry by fax. He’s that’s kind of spineless coward.
He's doing the 2024 version of that, letting the talent find out about it from Twitter 🤣
I've seen some stans defend it by saying "wElL hE gOt HuRt On ThE iNdIeS, nOt ToNy'S fAuLt" as if that makes it better
I have the feeling the financials look terrible and he's had to dip into other funding sources. Or he knows he isn't getting renewed or he's getting an NXT type deal. Totally expect more people to be fired. There is no way the guy can continue on with the absurd expenditures that place may have.
This is what it feels like if AEW was a regular company. But what are 2 or even 10 million to Tony? I'm sure he's had to pay for a lot of stuff out of his own pocket. And getting rid of dozens of jobbers will save him comparatively little money considering what he blew on bringing in Okada, Ospreay and Mone just recently. Why does he care about his financials now all of a sudden? Unless somehow his dad or WBD told him to make certain changes.
This almost reads like an April Fool’s story. Who are these guys? I’ve never even heard of them.
It kinda gives me pause that I know all of them, lol.
It feels good knowing I couldn’t pick these people out a lineup. I have heard of most of them, probably on Cornette’s show.
Either he’s pissed about punk not saying they’re a business or shad finally got wind of him not making any money with useless mfs on the payroll
I feel like Shad or his people had been telling Tony for a while to cut people here and there and Tony being Tony, he waited until he was forced to do it.
Is Paige Van Zant still getting a check to show her butthole (not complaining) on OF instead of pro wrestling?
One of the first names that came to mind when I read this. She had one match and we never saw her again.
For Khan to be one of those "we're a family friendly product" types he certainly has a lot of pornst...I mean adult content creators signed to his company.
And just who are these female content creators? We need to know so we can avoid any spicy content
All of the friends CM Punk didn’t name.
Based on the precedent of his last release, are we safe to assume all these wrestlers made Tony fear for his life as well?
Probably so, he could buy a lot of coke with the money he isn’t now paying them.
Here's hoping they fire the House of Black so they can go back to WWE. But it looks like he's only firing the ones that have no shot going there lol
Genuinely I feel like them releasing Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews and letting them go back would be a good decision. Most of the HOB stuff they do doesn’t even involve Malakai/Buddy anymore. It’s almost always Brody King and Julia Hart. Letting Malakai and Buddy go back saves them a huge amount of money, and they can simply fill those empty spots with, I don’t know, people they are willing to actually book in matches? It’s genuinely annoying seeing them not booked often.
I do not understand why Buddy Matthews is not featured more. It looks like they are getting ready to do a program with Malakai Black and Adam Copeland.
A Copeland/Black feud? That’s going to be ten degrees of cringe.
TK is really taking that “Tony’s a nice guy not a boss” Punk criticism to heart apparently. Actually this is kind of in poor taste, I’d rather not see anyone get released. If they aren’t re-signed, that’s a different topic. I’m not trying to say AEW can’t release anyone as a business, just that it sucks to be on bad end of the release.
It’s about time, just waiting for cutlet to get dropped. Being fair to tony, this has been a long time Criticism of him so when he does it he gets joked on. Kinda a lose-lose for him lol
To do this on aprils fools day is not cool.
The heartless bastard
Tony's a walking reaction. No proactive thinking ever.
No Jungle Jackoff? No Cutlet? No Miro? Even Tiny's cuts are weak.
Who, who, who and who? Wonder what outrageous amount these people were making off TK?
So far, Stu Grayson Dasha the announcer Dalton Castle's Boys SRS says it's an ongoing thing though
Shoutout to *Present\_Inspector\_61 -* a true prophet amongst us! You were onto something, man. >Tony should just cut 20 people tomorrow to show things are changing I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me this was the fallout from the Punk interview. Tony is cooking again... Popcorn, please!
Ha the dumbass realized he blew too much money on a talentless nobody people don't care about and he's gotta free up some cash so he can still suck off the bucks. But damn I'm kinda surprised about Dasha and The Boys. Honestly I always thought Dasha was one of the better ring announcers these days. So I guess Tony firing The Boys means he's gonna change Dalton Castle's gimmick and completely fuck him up. To me Castle is one of the few that has been able to make that kind of gimmick work, he's one of those I desperately wish someone like Dusty Rhodes could've got his hands on. Could you imagine Dalton Castle surrounded by like 50 of "the boys" strutting down the Wrestlemania ramp while Elton John plays live up on the stage, it's the definition of a Wrestlemania entrance.
Dalton and Pretty Deadly as an ass-kicking babyface stable under Dusty would have been friggin great. Put them up against the bullying stable of Gallus or Drew Gulak's Crew and I think Dusty could have EASILY made you care about every single person in the angle.
Dasha wasn't a great announcer to me and the fact she was announcer for Big Business made me feel like I was watching an episode of Collision. I can't believe she was fired and they should have kept her as a journalist
Wasn't Stu released before, only to come back after a short while? He then wrestled a couple of matches and hasn't been seen since then? Question is why would Tony even bother? If he releases 20 guys like Stu that will only save him 2 or 3 million. In a time of increasing revenue and a huge incoming tv deal nonetheless.
>Wasn't Stu released before, only to come back after a short while? He then wrestled a couple of matches and hasn't been seen since then? You are correct, Sir! Something must've gotten into Tony... the timing is spectacular...
that's what i was going to ask. probably, his dark order buds tried to keep him but he really didn't do much when he got brought back from what i remember. when you look at guys like this, i think it's better just to give them a night's pay to have them job rather than a fulltime contract if tony doesn't have long term plans. the only people that should have contracts are those that are stars and have a plan written in their contract.
From some tweets seems Stu hates leaving Canada and his last match was on 2023 for Roh.
You're assuming a huge new TV deal. The only whiff he have of anything is Tony saying on Twitter they're going to have a great deal. And I can totally see WBD spinning a yarn about "o yeah gonna be a tremendous deal we've got for you" and now actual numbers are being exchanged and it ain't pretty
You could likely cut half the roster and still have enough to run two shows a night.
The last count I had of their roster page had them at about 200 wrestlers (both the men and the women). Apparently, he’s got dozens (hundreds?) more signed based on these Dark/ROH jobbers I’ve never even heard of getting cut. In all reality, he could cut 110-120 wrestlers and still have more than enough to run a promotion.
Brian Last liked Dasha, he’s gonna be sad and/or pissed at Tony
Somehow Evil Uno and Cutler are still employed….
Dasha Stu and 3 people I have never heard of. Meh
Dasha was actually decent. Justin Roberts is just Excalibur with a house mic.
Tony Khan is so great he can tell gravity to fuck off. He is my hero. #aewsaveswrestling
He's canceling their contracts to re-sign them for DOUBLE what they were making.
They don't call it Double Or Nothing for nothing!
Should have started at the top with the highest paid stooge in Jericho and then went down the list. Probably could have cut 50 or more and TV wouldn’t change
Jericho and the Bucks should have been at the top of the "Get the fuck out" list long, LONG ago. None of them are essential, none of them are irreplaceable, and none of them draw numbers or new eyes. From there, you start granting releases to anyone who's truly upset at that decision, and anyone else who you've not had use for in a while. Guys like Malakai and Miro...let them go, too. If they'd be happier in the WWE, let them try to go back, if they can. They're not helping your numbers either unless you consistently use them and Tony isn't so...let them walk. I could go on, but yeah. You're exactly right, that the cuts that would do the most good, creatively and financially, are at the top.
He heard Punk say he was to friendly to the wrestlers and decided to fight back by firing a handful of people.
That Mercedes contract gotta balance out somehow.
Called out by punk, shows he's a boss by letting go 0.1% of his roster!
Those are rookie numbers…he better pump those numbers up! I can think of scores more who need to go.
Well, he has about 400 unknowns signed. Too many toys to keep truck of
So many figs, he probably uses a fleet of Tonka trucks to transport them from the bed to the bath tub
I was like "Oh, I wonder who" until I remembered they have 70 randos under contract that you see once a blue moon.
April Fool's is probably the worst time to release people. Imagine you pick up your phone and get a call telling you that you are released, only to wonder if it's a malicious prank. And really? Releasing a guy who's currently injured? Even WWE wouldn't do that. Absolute clown show.
Surprised Dasha was part of the cuts. Cute lady ring announcer? Always good to have.
He isn’t even making smart roster cuts lol. He’s just cutting randos. If you’re going to shed salary then she’d salary and stop messing around cutting people we’ve never seen/heard of. Like Nyla Rose? Keith Lee? Paige VanZant? Jake Hager? Jeff Hardy? But no he cuts some goof named Jara instead. Ok that’s cool but let’s actually start trimming that fat here Jacksonville Dixie
Forget even those guys, he needs to cut losers like the Elite and Chris Jericho.
A list of who's and not enough of em.
How is losing a pay check best for the talent?
If AEW wants to succeed, TK needs to put himself up on the chopping block too.
If he doesn't fire Adam Page, all these cuts are pointless. Granted, a lot of their contracts were pointless too but that's a different point. Wow, though: Dasha AND the Hype Man? Tony hates Latin X - Print it.
And just after Wrestlemania too! To ensure his unemployed wrestlers can't find work for a year.
The money mark turns.
Nah, it’s April Fools Day - TK is just playin’ & they’ll get re-signed to new six figure deals tomorrow.
Buncha scrubs.
This is what he probably should have done a couple of years ago start releasing a bunch of guys nobody cares about
Like 3 years too late
This is where Mean Gene pops in my mind. "It doesn't read like the Who's Who; more like the Who's That." (No lie, Grayson wasn't bad. They could have done something with him in ROH.)
Quick question: WHO THE FUG ARE THOSE GUYS?? lololol
Tony so mad he's just taking it out on whoever is around aka the Martin Truex Jr approach.
“Thanks Guys.”
Punk really got inside his head
They cut Dasha? SACRELIGE!!!
I thought he lets wrestlers work till the end of their contracts.
“WHOS NOT RUNNING A BUSINESS” - Tony Kahn
Anthony Henry?
I can’t remember ever hearing about any of them, except for Gravity. Which makes me wonder why Danielson isn’t doing dream matches with them.
Are you going to make actual cuts that could fix your shithouse company, Tony? Nope? Well then, fuck you and your mama. Let me know when you realize your "friends" are only there to cornhole your daddy's checkbook, Herb Abrams Jr. I'll throw a parade.
I'll never understand how/why Tony signed Parker Boudreaux after his run on NXT in the first place
This is the same company that employed Marko Stunt.
I mean about time. He has to act tough and commit to being the boss once in his time with Aew. Punk just stared the obvious, what’s been said a million times and confirmed a lot of it as fact.
Nice of Tony to take my advice
The hero of the indie scene cuts guys so he can overpay Sasha Banks. Classic.
I sincere hope Jim will do a special for this interview.
Isn’t this a good thing? AEW has had a bloated roster, even for two promotions.
I'm sure there are more to come.
Stu Grayson only just came back and now he’s gone again. That must be Tony’s shortest contract
Dasha was a bad announcer for me and the fact she was announcer for Big Business made me feel like I was watching Collision and they should have kept her being a journalist. Now who's going to replace her on Collision? Tony Chimel, Justin Roberts or the ROH announcer?
Remember when they said AEW was safe and that Tony Khan would never cuts talent? Oops.
Well hey even if it is way too late it’s good they’re finally starting to do the right thing to trim down the roster a bit. Let’s give them a hand when they do something right and be positive to encourage more in the future. Maybe they’ve seen the light.
Not only did he go back on his word, but they’re in damage control mode. Sammy Guevara is on X kissing ass, and AEW has restricted commenting on their instagram pages.
The Boys released during an ROH storyline between Johnny and Dalton, lol. Stu Grayson why the fuck bring him back in the first place? Parker Boudreaux will only be remembered for that hilarious overselling in the Mogul Affiliates segment. That guy has no hope. Jose the Assistant I only remember as that guy who stands behind Rush. And Gravity has been forgotten again. PAC is safe I guess.
On the bright side, their chances of getting seriously injured have dramatically decreased.
Man tiny finally cut some people making checks off him to do nothing? I’m shocked but not surprised. Jake Hager still has a job and all he does is love his hat. Feel bad for the guys not getting a free ride anymore.
I'll be surprised if Dasha doesn't end up in WWE doing interviews or ring announcing. She's got some talent, just needs a little polish.
The moment I looked at the list of cut talents, I immediately responded with "Who? Never heard of em" That should say enough
Never heard of any of these guys except that dude Parker who supposed to be the next Brock lol
Since the article states it started April 1st, maybe this is Tony pulling an April fools joke on his friends
Look at him, learning how to run a business
Hopefully this continues and includes cutting off actual fat instead of just the guys he was paying to do dark matches
Cut the Elite, Moxley and Jericho. That already frees up 50% of TV time and a good amount of money.
Ooof. Sucks to be Tony but yeah. Looks like he's allowed himself to cause more backstage chaos than the clique ever did.
They have more than 120 wrestlers under contract. They 5 hours of TV tapings a week, and that's it, no house shows. They could easily do that with 40 wrestlers, without having anyone work twice in a week.
Lol a lot of no-names he shouldn't have hired to begin with.
Someone must have posted the wrong link. They claimed "stars" were released, but I read the article and didn't see one wrestler I'd call a star.