PWInsider.com has confirmed the following AEW talents were released today:
-The Tate Twins aka Dalton Castle’s Boys.
-Anthony Henry.
-Stu Grayson.
-Gravity.
-Dasha Fuentes.
-Slim J.
-Parker Bordeaux.
-Jose The Assistant.
-Jora Johl.
In speaking to several sources, we are told AEW is currently evaluating their talent roster and making cuts to benefit both the company and the talents. The belief is the released talents would be 100% free agents immediately.
We are told this was likely the complete list of talents who were cut today. No word if additional names will also be released.
dashas really the only surprising one. i thought she did a great job covering for justin.
Dasha is the love of my life 😭
Same as I’ve always said with any mass releases: hate seeing people lose their jobs like this.
The only plus is if it’s true they’re actually immediately free.
Is this the first time AEW has done releases for non-disciplinary reasons?
Maybe Bea Priestley and Sadie Gibbs during lockdown when they couldn’t get to the US?
Oh yeah, that’s right. But not something like this, where it’s purely a budget move, right?
Yeah, I think it’s the first time it’s about budget.
Yeah, straight up cuts.
A lot of these I didn’t even think were under contract still. Dasha though?!? Are the Boys still signed with ROH? If not it makes Dalton’s story just sad and pointless.
Not being held to a non-compete is huge. But usually, a non-compete means your former employer still pays you to stay home. So, depending on what the actual arrangement is, it could be a negative if they don’t find work right away.
The Boys is a bummer, for reasons others have already stated, curious if maybe they wanted to get out of Dalton’s shadow.
Anthony Henry is unfortunately the less interesting member of The Workhorsemen.
Stu definitely confuses me. Story-wise he’s not part of the Dark Order anymore, but after supposedly joining The Righteous and having the 6-man Fight Without Honor against the DO, he completely disappeared. (Or he transformed into Lance Archer, have they ever been seen together?)
Gravity is probably a case of a luchador getting lost in the shuffle.
Dasha? Really? Why?
Slim J was shockingly the Last Man Standing in The Trustbusters. I don’t recall him being bad in the ring, but his character of “that douchey stoner that you see in the grocery store right before closing time” was an absolute charisma vacuum.
Parker has a great look, but he just wasn’t ready for tv. They pushed him too hard, too fast.
What did Jose do? Did he assist the wrong people?
Jora Johl certainly existed.
Slim J was shockingly the Last Man Standing in The Trustbusters. I don’t recall him being bad in the ring, but his character of “that douchey stoner that you see in the grocery store right before closing time” was an absolute charisma vacuum.
In my youth, I spent a lot of time in North Georgia gyms and one-room school houses and Slim J was a staple in those places, I can still hear his going ssss before moves, speaking parseltongue I guess, anyway, I can’t remember him ever being handed a mic, and I’d guess for that reason.
Gravity is probably a case of a luchador getting lost in the shuffle.
And to be frank…fuck was that gimmick lol. Every space-walk made me shake my head.
Not gonna lie the space walk was goofy but it always got a pop from me lol
I go microdose and head to bed early and miss the fun shit (thanks for being on the ball Jello!)
I’m gonna give a general ‘this sucks’ to the situation as AEW was supposed to not do stuff like this and no one deserves to lose their job, but it’s also understandable given the roster bloat that AEW has been suffering from for years. They need to clean house a bit between the big paycheques and the lack of time.
The Tates
That one hurts, I love the Boys, and they are literally part of a storyline in ROH as we speak. The storyline involves them being missing and possibly eating by bears, but…I guess they have been eaten by bears!
Henry
Sucks to see him go. I know the Workhorsemen got a ways to go yet but sucks to see him gone.
Stu
I wanna know if this one was requested/desired or not. He left, they brought him back, used him sparingly for a month or two and then that’s it. He’s not out injured, he’s worked the last several Mystery Wrestling shows for Uno and he still runs he and Uno’s school too so maybe he also wanted out, but who knows.
Gravity
He was under contract?!
Dasha
Weird to get rid of her. She definitely has her fair share of fuckups (‘Mr. Wardlow…Wardlow!!’ anyone?) but I mean…
Slim J
Sweet.
Bordeux
Sweet.
Seriously why the fuck were Slim J and Bordeux not released already?
Jose
This one is…yeah. Makes me wonder what will happen to LFI. Rush isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but that doesnt help.
Jora
I have no goddamned fucking idea who in the shit this is.
At the very least TK isn’t holding anyone down with notice periods so they can go take bookings immediately (for the 4ish people on the list who are bookable) instead of waiting 90 days.
That one hurts, I love the Boys, and they are literally part of a storyline in ROH as we speak. The storyline involves them being missing and possibly eating by bears, but…I guess they have been eaten by bears!
I was wondering the same thing, why in the middle of a fucking storyline? I’m led to believe these are complete releases, but some of the dirt sheets keep using AEW releases, I’m wondering if maybe they are still on a paid-per-appearance deal with ROH, if not, WTF is going on here? First, the PPV is no longer exclusive to B/R, and now sudden talent releases after being told he wouldn’t do that, it’s all so strange to me.
I just got lucky on that ball, I was trying to piece together the WM weekend cards from the various companies and the story popped up.
What I learned, there is going to be wrestling from 11AM to after Midnight everyday staring on Thursday… and some of these crazy bastards are wrestling 4-5 times in two days. Crazy.
WM weekend these last few years have been so goddamned stacked its unreal. I keep watching for Speedball to see how many he does, last year he did 10.
Jora Johl got bounced around between various factions on Dark/Elevation. He even had a brief stint (and even a promo segment or two) with “Big Money” Matt Hardy as part of the HFO.
…I cannot tell you how little that jogs my memory goddamn
*googles images*
*pulls up a fucking elevation episode*
fuck me sideways, nope. Either I missed him entirely or I wiped him from my memory lmao.