"I can't renew all the contracts" - Tony Khan on multiple AEW stars' contracts expiring
AEW president Tony Khan has admitted that multiple contracts are expiring in his company over the next few months, and that some of them will not be getting renewed.
Khan founded All Elite Wrestling in 2019 alongside Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks. Top stars like Kenny Omega, Hangman Page and Jon Moxley were very quickly signed to multi-year deals, but a number of wrestlers who were in the company at the start are reaching the end of their original contracts.
Speaking with TV Insider, Tony Khan opened up about AEW's contract situation and how he managed to keep his wrestlers happy during the COVID-19 pandemic when a lot of people were struggling to find work.
“When we started a lot of people had contracts that were a couple of years long and a lot of them are coming up," said Khan. "I have really tried hard to be very considerate of the people on the roster. Especially going through the pandemic, that encompassed a long period of time where we were still in our first year of television and going into our second." (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
On this day in @AEW History...
#CodyRhodes and the @youngbucks officially sign with @AEW https://t.co/Zkmk8xyhET
Tony Khan made it clear throughout the pandemic that job security for his talent and those he could help outside of AEW was the top priority.
“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, which was hard to come by for wrestling during the pandemic where there weren’t any independent shows," said Khan. "Really only two places were running and the other place was cutting people left and right. I did want to give some job security to people.” (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
Finally, Khan admitted that with such a large roster on his hands, including the flood of talent he's signed in 2022, some of talent with expiring contracts will not be All Elite for much longer.
“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.” (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
Who are some of the AEW talent that Tony Khan will let go of?
Nobody likes to see anyone lose their job, but as the old saying goes "out with the old and in with the new." With this in mind, who are some of the talents that AEW fans might be saying goodbye to in the near future?
I’m a free agent. https://t.co/aZwy8F8O6O
AEW has already bid farewell to Peter Avalon this year, whose contract expired in January. Lio Rush will be a free agent in mid-February. Joey Janela may be out of his contract at the end of April and former FTW Champion Brian Cage's deal will reportedly be up sometime this spring.
Time will tell how AEW's roster continues to evolve from here on out.