10 Wrestlers Who No Longer Work For AEW

Australian Cinephile

Those wrestlers doing their bit to help solves AEW’s roster bloat problems…

Transcript

00:00To kick this thing off, let's just acknowledge that yes, Cody and Brandy Rhodes do exist,

00:05they just aren't on this particular list. They obviously qualify as wrestlers who have left

00:10AEW, but after going through their departures in great detail over and over and over again,

00:17I'm kind of tired of it to be honest and I'm going to leave it at that. Instead,

00:22today we're going to talk about the AEW departures that are a little bit further removed from the

00:27Zeitgeist. Each of them are notable because, with a few exceptions, AEW don't release people before

00:34the end of their contracts. We'll cover a couple of those exceptions on the list, but Tony Khan isn't

00:40just cutting people willy nilly. So with that in mind, I'm Andy from WhatCulture and here are 10

00:45wrestlers who no longer work for AEW. Number 10, Bea Priestley. This one is particularly interesting

00:53as the former Bea Priestley now works for WWE, where she can be found working on NXT UK as Blair

01:00Davenport. Debuting for AEW in July 2019, Priestley is best known for her brief feud with an early

01:07babyface Britt Baker, but was appearing on and off for the company until March 2020, balancing it

01:13with her commitments in Japan. But then the global bastard happened and with Priestley unable to travel

01:19from her home in Japan to AEW shows in the United States, she was let go. That happened in August

01:252020 and 10 months later, she was signed by WWE. So after all of that, it's safe to say that things

01:32worked out pretty well for her in the end. Number 9, Mel. The former Melanie Cruz was used as part of

01:39everybody's favorite AEW stable, The Nightmare Collective, and showed her commitment to the cause

01:44by having her head shaved bald for the role in 2020. But in the end, she only wrestled in five

01:51matches for AEW, the last of which took place in August 2020. Absent without announcement for a

01:58lengthy period of time, Mel was the subject of a report from Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp in July 2021,

02:04stating that Mel had found success in her day job away from wrestling and wasn't being factored into

02:10any AEW plans. On top of this, she was semi-active on the indies last year. So she hasn't left wrestling

02:17entirely, just AEW. Number 8, Awesome Kong. Another member of the loved Nightmare Collective,

02:25Awesome Kong ended up leaving AEW for entirely different reasons to Mel, having formally retired

02:31from wrestling in 2021 after taking time off the previous year to film the final season of GLOW.

02:37A legend of women's wrestling, Kong has found considerable success elsewhere. Her AEW run was

02:44a little brief, starting at the first Double or Nothing in May 2019 and effectively lasting just

02:49eight months, but such is life. In her prime, she could have easily been set up for a long,

02:55incredible run at the very top of the card. Number 7, Shima. Another AEW career crushed by the

03:03COVID-19 pandemic, Shima and his stronghearts lads have been restricted primarily to their home base

03:09in Japan since the world started falling apart in March 2020. Shima had originally been pinpointed

03:15as the go-between for a potential partnership between AEW and the upstart Chinese promotion OWE.

03:22But then, well, you know, the pandemic happened and here we are. It would have been cool to see the

03:28former Dragon Gate cornerstone do more in AEW, particularly as his Kenny Omega singles match

03:33was pretty great. But maybe we'll get more once international travel isn't such a pain in the

03:38arse, because I personally would love to see stronghearts back in AEW.

03:44Number 6, Jimmy Havoc. Horrific allegations made against Jimmy Havoc during the speaking out

03:49movement of spring 2020, including domestic abuse, physical assault and worse, led to the former

03:55Superbad Squad member being released by the company that August. Initially set for counseling

04:00and rehabilitation, while suspended by AEW, Havoc is no longer active in pro wrestling. The punishment

04:07dealt to this alleged abuser was one that should have been reflected elsewhere in the wrestling

04:11business as a consequence of speaking out. Number 5, Leo Rush. Becoming a free agent on the 14th of

04:18February this year, Leo Rush's run as a contracted AEW wrestler barely lasted six months. Signed the

04:26previous September after debuting at Double or Nothing, where he was injured in the Casino Battle

04:30Royale that he entered as the Joker, Leo had actually been off TV for a little while prior to

04:36his official departure, having last wrestled for AEW on the 8th of December episode of Dynamite.

04:42An unfortunate turn of events, really, and one that has continued since then, with Leo recently

04:47suffering another injury while working PWG's Battle of Los Angeles in January, shelving his career

04:54for an undisclosed period of time. Here's to a speedy recovery, because the guy's far too talented

05:00to be sidelined for too long. Number 4, Ivelisse. While she debuted for AEW in 2019, Ivelisse didn't

05:09start picking up more regular bookings there until 2020, when she won the Deadly Draw Tag Tournament

05:15alongside partner Diamante. Unfortunately, that September, she and Bunda Rosa had a match that,

05:21being polite, didn't quite go to plan. An apparent backstage disagreement spilled into the ring,

05:27and watching it, there were clearly periods of one side not cooperating with the other,

05:33and it wasn't Bunda Rosa. Let go by AEW due to reported issues with coaches in April 2021,

05:39Ivelisse put out a statement alleging mistreatment. Given her questionable reliability as a narrator,

05:46it's probably best to take that one with a giant handful of salt.

05:50Number 3, Kylie Rae. While it initially looked like Kylie Rae was being set up to play a big role

05:56as an early face of AEW's women's division, she formally departed the company early in its run,

06:02with Tony Khan describing the split as very amicable. Details were few on the ground. But Kylie later stated

06:09that nobody made her leave, however, and it soon became clear that the dumb conspiracy theories

06:14that emerged online following her departure were just that. Dumb. Kylie has since worked for such

06:21promotions as Impact Wrestling and the NWA, taking several breaks from the sport for health reasons.

06:27This, of course, is far more important than anything that has ever gone on in a wrestling ring,

06:32and in January, she celebrated 90 days sober.

06:36Number 2, Ben Carter. A bit of a cheat entry here, as Ben Carter was never truly employed by AEW,

06:44but he did catch the eye when wrestling for the promotion in September 2020,

06:48particularly for his awesome match with Scorpio Sky on Late Night Dynamite.

06:53Visa issues unfortunately prevented AEW from being legally allowed to pay Carter. Later,

06:59he ended up signing for WWE, which had always been a dream of his. And while there was all this talk

07:05of him being poached away, Vince McMahon's company actually made their approach to Carter before

07:10he turned up in AEW. Today, you can catch him on NXT UK as Nathan Fraser. Bad name, good wrestler.

07:18And at number 1, Big Swole. Easily the most publicized AEW departure to date, Big Swole confirmed in November

07:252021 that, after much consideration, she and AEW had come to the mutual agreement that her expiring contract

07:33wasn't going to be renewed, effectively making her a free agent. A few weeks later, the incident caught fire.

07:40Citing her perceived lack of diversity in AEW as one of the driving factors behind the decision,

07:45as well as some structural issues, Swole's reasonable, fair, and well-explained criticisms

07:50were met by Tony Khan claiming that he let Swole go because, in his words, he felt her wrestling

07:57wasn't good enough. Khan responding to Swole's comments on such an important matter, like a

08:02Got in 2 message board poster, is probably something he regrets in private. And at the end of the day,

08:09all he really had to do was not tweet. But anyway guys, that's our list, so tell us what you think

08:15down in the comments section below. After that, don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and ring the bell

08:20for notifications. Then, you can follow us on Twitter at WhatCultureWWE and myself at AndyHMurray,

08:27where you can tell me how wrong I am. Goodbye!

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