Who is Kevin Kelly and what was his association with AEW? All we know about his departure from the promotion so far
In a somewhat shocking move by AEW, Kevin Kelly has been removed from their roster page. It is not yet known if he's been officially released from the promotion, but the writing is clearly on the wall. The 56-year-old announcer joined on as the play-by-play commentator for AEW Collision on June 17th.
Lately, Kelly's appearances at the desk on Saturday nights have been scanty, with Tony Schiavone and Ian Riccaboni working the play-by-play position instead. On March 4th, Kelly claimed that someone named "Ian" had spread false information about him, essentially benching him from his weekly gig.
Whether or not his tweets on March 2nd had anything to do with this decision or not, Kelly was kept off of AEW Revolution on March 3rd. Excalibur, Tony Sciavone, Taz, Nigel McGuinness were used throughout the event, both the buy-in and PPV. Jim Ross worked the final two matches of the night.
Back in September, X (formerly Twitter) user @Dazelel posted comments supposedly made by Ian Riccaboni in a Discord server, venting his frustrations with Kelly supporting a Qanon movie as well as extreme right-wing beliefs.
Kevin Kelly's lengthy career in pro wrestling
Kevin Kelly has been in the wrestling business in a variety of roles for over three decades now. He worked in WWE from 1996 to 2003 as a backstage interviewer. He's probably most remembered there as the interviewer who was at Brian Pillman's house when he pulled a gun on Stone Cold Steve Austin.
He signed with Ring of Honor in 2010, working as the promotion's lead at the desk for seven years. He also joined NJPW in 2015, and by 2017 had left ROH to focus on NJPW full-time. On June 17th, he joined Nigel McGuinness as the main commentary pair on the debut episode of AEW Collision. He'd wrap up his duties with NJPW by November 14th.
If this is the end of Kevin Kelly's time with AEW, it's quite a short run, with the 33-year industry veteran only lasting nine months.
What do you think of AEW potentially releasing the 33-ye1ar veteran Kevin Kelly from his contract after such a short stint? Sound off below