Female AEW star removed from roster page, officially ends 5-year run
Another AEW star has officially left the company. She was with the promotion for five years.
Leyla Hirsch first started her AEW run in 2020 and immediately garnered a lot of attention due to her in-ring skills. She was a regular feature on Dynamite during the early days of the promotion. However, in recent years, Hirsch was used more on ROH TV. She even challenged Red Velvet for the ROH World TV Championship at Final Battle in December 2024. Recently, reports surfaced stating that her contract with the promotion was ending in February, after which she would become a free agent.
All Elite Wrestling has now confirmed Leyla's departure, as her profile was removed her from the promotion's roster page on their official website.
Malakai Black also left AEW earlier this year
On the November 6 episode of Dynamite, Malakai Black faced off against Adam Cole in a losing effort. Following this loss, both men shared a heartfelt moment in the ring when they hugged each other. As Black was heading up the entrance ramp, he glanced back at the ring, which fueled speculation online about his future with the company.
Black denied the rumors about him leaving the Jacksonville-based promotion at that time. However, the star would only wrestle a handful of matches before he went missing from TV, which again fueled speculation about his release. These rumors eventually turned out to be true a few weeks ago after it was reported that Black was no longer with AEW.
Adam Cole also addressed Malakai Black's departure on In The Kliq podcast, where he stated that he had no idea what the former House of Black member's position was within the company when they shared that moment in the ring. He noted that their personal moment was out of mutual respect they had for each other.
“No, no. I really didn’t (know what was happening with Malakai Black & AEW when we had our moment on Dynamite). So, again, I do have a history of working with Malakai. Just an unbelievable opponent, an unbelievable guy to step in there with and we’ve shared a lot of really, really cool moments together. So for me, all it was was this personal moment between two guys who have a lot of respect for each other. I don’t know anything about — or didn’t know anything about what his plans were or anything like that. For me, it was just a cool moment with a friend after getting to work together for a long time.” [H/T: Inside The Ropes]
Check out the video below:
It will be interesting to see whether Malakai Black will return to WWE in the near future.