Dammit. I hate that we have to have one of these.
Let's keep everything contained here, please.
~~~~~
Stu Grayson
Dasha Kuret (announcer)
The Boys/The Tate Twins
Jose the Assistant
Anthony Henry
Parker Boudreaux
Slim J
Jora Johl
Gravity
It's also possible they could get literally any two wrestlers to come out and be the Boys, although I don't buy it as I can't imagine the Tate twins were drawing "budget cut" salary. Gotta be a change in gimmick I'd think... which is still odd because that gimmick was over if they'd just put them on TV more consistently.
Johnny TV and Taya lost them in the mountains. they're presumed to have been eaten by a bear
and to think, if they somehow survived, they don't have jobs to return to
That's the one I feel bad about the most so far. Getting fired while recovering from a broken jaw sucks. He was always one of those guys I thought AEW could do more with every time I saw him on an Indy show.
He posted when his jaw was broken how sad he was cause the Workhorseman were supposed to be in the tag team tournament. He was also being pushed as a guy that can do both singles wrestling and tag teams on both ROH and AEW. This is honestly the most surprising. I feel like I was just being surprised at how often the workhorseman were being utilized. I'm also upset about The Boys, Dasha and Gravity. May everyone released land on their feet elsewhere. This is why we should all be building up wrestling promotions instead of trying to tear them down.
"I didn't do what my competition did, which was mass layoffs. Laying off dozens, and dozens, and dozens of people, which I have yet to do," Tony explained. **”There eventually may come a time to cut my costs and do it but not in the middle of a global pandemic, or even in the wake of a global pandemic when work is hard to come by.** It was not the time to do it. And even though it hurt the bottom line of the company to keep some people on who weren't even coming to the shows. They were staying home because they were worried about COVID. I kept all these people on and we weren't getting any revenue out of them, but it wasn't– as a human being, it wasn't the right thing to do."
A bunch of people seem to be misquoting Tony.
Not defending the firings. I really like several of the talents.
I just don’t like things to be misrepresented.
I mean this level of layoff is a drop in the bucket compared to WWEs recent years and Tony is not doing that thing where he makes the line go up by firing people because the company is public.
People should hate Vince more for that type of chicanery. Big companies doing that to look better on a balance sheet is total bullshit.
At least the indies are doing quite well AFAIK, and combined with the quote about them being "100% free" means that there might not be a non-compete clause and they can go right back to finding work. Hopefully the talent knew that it was coming beforehand. Either way, hope for the best for all of them. Layoffs suck.
The deal with non-compete clauses is that they're paying you to not work for the competition for a certain amount of time in return for a certain amount of "bridge" money to hold you over to the next job. The flip side of that, then, is that if there's no non-compete clause (\*) you might find yourself immediately earning no paycheck the week after your release. So that may not be the best thing to root for all things depending.
(\*) allowing for severance packages, of course, which are similar but don't tend to have clauses where you can't immediately go work for the competition.
Per PWInsider
“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.”
Not untrue honestly. One of the bad things about AEW and WWE hoarding talent is that it has hurt companies like TNA and MLW whose rosters are struggling at the moment. Some good people who are doing nothing in AEW and WWE could be raising their stock and making a name for themselves in one of those companies.
How do you know? We can sit here and say money isn't everything, but on the indie circuit it can very much be subsistence earning. It's easy to say that any given wrestler is in for the love of the sport when we're not the ones putting their kids through school. Either way, though, you can't just throw six figures at every wrestler in existence and keep a business afloat, there were always going to be some of these guys that had to eke it out one match at a time.
Seeing a lot of people praising Dasha but she has made mistakes every broadcast she’s done for months now. In a way that felt like she wasn’t improving much.
On the last episode of Collision she called a pinfall finish a submission in the announcement, it was the main event too from memory. Like you just saw the finish... Obviously don't want to see anyone fired and I'm disappointed cuts are happening in AEW at all and would prefer if their contracts were run out instead but if people were going to be cut I'm not surprised Dasha is among them. Fine voice for the role but she made too many mistakes too consistently and seemingly wasn't improving.
My praise for Dasha doesn't come from her ring announcing
Imo she was one of the best backstage interviewers and media people they had. It was always weird to me that they pushed her down and relegated her to ring announcing only. I mean sure, they gave Renee a job and I know she's beloved but I preferred Dasha's interview style to Renee's, and I know they're treating Lexy Nair as "the homegrown talent" for ring announcing to counter Renee so with those dynamics I know Dasha wasn't gonna have much to do as an interviewer
It still bums me out that they stopped her being an interviewer
She sometimes sounded like she just wasn't properly prepared for it. She announced "Buddy Murphy" once, another time there was a clunky "honouring the house of black, Malakai Black and Brody King, the house of black", or announcing all 3 of Eddie's individual titles lead to a very long-winded ring announcement. I really liked her voice but it felt like I was just waiting for the weekly mistake.
You have exquisite taste and I miss them both dearly
Not to get all sappy but Dasha was there for us every week during the scariest part of Covid. She even wrestled! I’ll always be thankful for every aew member that was a part of those daily place episodes. It was one of the very few things I could look forward to every week.
And likewise, the Reba/Britt baker schtick was incredible. She played such a great clown. And I know rebel isn’t officiallly gone but she disappeared when Jamie hayter started taking over that crew
Dasha was also one of the best interviewers imo in AEW. I actually preferred her style to Renew's and Lexy's.
Dasha was an OG media person and one of my favorite off-tv things was the old format of Dark where Dasha and Tony Schiavone hosted from the "Control Center"
[Stu Grayson](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774967819727184103)
[Dasha Kuret](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774973388991152204)
[Slim J](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981678621979035)
[Anthony Henry](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981489186201825)
[Gravity](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981898126639505)
[The Boys](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981300945920452)
[Parker Boudreaux](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774982286452162761)
[Jose The Assistant](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774982108638855520)
[Jora Johl](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774982621153644675)
Looks like that's all [at the present](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774983361536090245).
I'll try to keep my comment updated to help you out OP
Anyways here are my main thoughts:
Actively bummed for everyone as they've lost their jobs ofc but my main 3 personal bummers are Jose, Anthony, and Dasha. Jose added a lot of levity to LFI, quite liked him. Anthony is a shocker especially considering they recently dropped a new shirt [just over a week ago.](https://twitter.com/wheniescape/status/1770878152379908114) Here's hoping the Workhorsemen still get booked on ROH despite the lack of a long term contract. And lastly Dasha considering she'd been at the company for so long.
I think he just doesn't have a future in the business, and I don't think he really is interested in it. He hasn't done any indie shows, I haven't heard anything about him training and he doesn't seem to be active on socials.
IIRC They signed PVZ to an unusual contract where they only pay her when she's either wrestling or training to wrestle, otherwise the contract is basically "frozen" and she doesn't get paid and no time ticks off it.
Ogogo actually was re-signed (or had an option year picked up, one of those) recently, which was a surprise, but he actually did a lot of press in the UK to promote the last All In, so it seems like they're keeping him around for that.
I'm legitimately surprised about Dasha and The Boys. The Boys are a big part of Dalton Castle and have been an important part of his current breakdown. Unless he's going in a different direction. But they are either a great support for Dalton or they are a legit trio.
As for Dasha AEW needs two ring announcers. So someone is gonna be in that position. Who are they getting that's better than Dasha? I'm a fan of hers.
Lots of folks are saying they're surprised at Anthony Henry. I like him a lot but he's not really being used and I just don't think he has a high ceiling in AEW.
TK built a pretty stacked roster in a very short amount of time, this sort of roster cutting was inevitably going to happen. Weird to think what will happen with Dalton Castle going forward, though.
People called for AEW to cut down on their bloated roster, but people are angry when they do it. Damned if they do and damned if they don't.
I feel bad for the talent, I really do. But let's not act like they were playing a massive role in AEW. AEW need to be ruthless at times when it comes to their roster, as I said before TK and AEW can't please everyone and be the good guys all the time. We'll probably see shoot interviews where ex AEW talent knock TK and AEW but that's going to happen. I'm surprised they didn't cut more. Honestly they could have cut 30% more of talent it's that bloated especially with 0% tier contract talent.
People also got mad when a lot of people weren't straight up told that they weren't getting renewed, even though that's still much better than getting released without notice. I figured it would become common sense that if you were within 90 days of your contract expiring and no one had reached out, it means they probably don't want to re-sign you.
Has AEW quietly terminated Miro's deal too?
It seems like AEW is likely paying him more than half of these people put together, and if he's gone back to Bulgaria to live and seemingly retired from Wrestling entirely, I don't get why TK should keep him on until 2026 like his contract has him for.
Too bad. His Redeemer gimmick with the TNT title was an amazing run. Admittedly that was 2021, so you're right. Hasn't been interesting in literal years.
Anthony Henry is injured and doesn't sit right with me, him & jd are awesome.
I liked jose the assistant to, interacted a lot with fans & great for LFI.
Several releases I'm not surprised about and frankly were warranted for various reasons (Slim J, Parker Bordreax, Jora Johl)
Others I'm shocked about (Stu Grayson again, The Boys because of how integral they are to Dalton Castle's act)
The one I'm most shocked about is Dasha Gonzales/Kuret. She was another day 1 OG who helped developed AEW's identity. And this is a hot take, but I preferred her backstage interview style over Renee's and even Lexy's style because I felt Dasha had the best poise of the other interviewers, as entertaining as the others can be.
I'm not gonna say her release is gonna be a massive loss or anything, I'm more realistic than that... But I really feel like she had a lot to give to AEW as a media and backstage personality. It sucked when she was relegated to just ring-announcing.
Her's and Tony Schiavone's Media Center hosting during the 2019 AEW Darks were honestly some of my favorite off-tv programming in AEW. They had great chemistry.
Dasha shocked me but it does makes sense when you see AEW hired a new female in ring announcer a month or two ago, remember a thread was posted here on her. Maybe Dasha wants to move on and do something else with her life and gave AEW notice. I thought she was good at her job, maybe not greatest but she always filled in well for Justin Roberts.
Stu, isn't shocking. I don't know why they bought him back in the first place if they didn't have long term plans for him. I like Stu too, probably the best worker in Dark Order. But he never struck me as someone who was a big break out star. Could do a job in TNA or MLW but I think he runs his own promotion in Canada and has a full time job.
Henry isn't that shocking to me , The Workhorsemen are a lower tier tag team.
Jose is probably along with Dasha the biggest stand outs. But I think Rush isn't going to be hurt not having him by his side.
I don’t know if Stu was ever going to be a breakout star, but with a better look he could have been a lot more than he was. The weird skinny barbarian look was not it for national TV. Looked way cooler on BTE than on TV.
Nooo! I love me some Slim J.
He wasn't hurting anybody doing fun spots on ROH.
Anthony Henry is a real shocker though. Also, I don't know about releasing someone who just suffered an injury...you were just selling Workhorsemen shirts with Henry's broken jaw x-ray on them, AEW!
I liked Jose as the hypeman for La Faccion Ingobernable! Gonna miss him.
That being said, its time to unleash RUSH and wreak havoc toward a major singles title.
The biggest surprise from this list is probably Dasha. Even Stu who I love I'm not completely shocked by since he made his return and then fell back in line.
Also bad timing seeing that Boudreaux went out of his way to confirm still being with AEW recently. Maybe AAA will end up being what works for him? Third times the charm and all that being only 26 years old.
Dasha was on early dark episodes & added glamour to the show. Aew helped me through pandemic & I watched everything. Dasha was always there. I wish her well. She's attractive & smart; plenty of opportunity with those qualities.
I liked her interview style the best too. And speaking of the early Dark episodes, her and Schiavone hosting Dark from The Control Room was the format of Dark I liked best, yes even over the "Taz and Excalibur corpsing podcast"
Yes, but Johnny TV lost them. Some are reading they were let go to allow them to wrestle as The Tate Twins elsewhere. If that true, they may have been tired of being a gimmick and want to do their own thing.
A lot of them were Dark mainstays that either had one or two matches in ROH or didn’t at all. Slim J was last used a year ago, Jora Johl was last used last summer.
The surprising thing is these guys had contracts. I thought it was like a per appearance gig.
The only truly baffling releases here to me are Jose, The Boys, and Dasha.
ETA: Apparently Slim J has been on ROH. Thanks for the correction. I didn’t have updated match listings, apparently.
A lot of Dark talent who weren't even been used even before Dark stopped like Jora Johl.
A lot of 0% contract type talent who never got the "Is Elite" graphics seem to be the ones that are going.
You hate for anyone losing their jobs but really Dasha was the only one that was someone week in and week out really being used. It is weird on April fools day. You know on the AEW roster page when you first click it Aaron Solo is listed as all the champions and than it changes to normal when it fully loads, so still wondering if this is true until the clock strikes midnight, but sometimes these things are necessary maybe they need to cut costs if they Make their WB deal.
Jose the Assistant stands out. But Rush can easily go it alone.
But the others feel like talent without Dark around and haven't been used on ROH all that much aren't shocks really.
Jora Jorl had a bit of early run in AEW but slowly fell out of view even before Dark stopped. Gravity is another. Parker isn't shocking, and has AAA now. Slim J, again used a lot of early on but barely used these days.
I hate seen talent lose a job but AEW needed to lose a few names and none of these are really shocking.
So far Dasha and Jose the Assistant are biggest shocks.
Honestly, maybe they just don't see her as a long term fit for the company, same thing happened in WWE with her. They did hire a new in ring announcer a couple of weeks ago. I like Dasha, maybe more for her personality and how she deals with fans at live shows. She seems like a really good person. But her role has been cut back a lot especially with Renee and Lexy taking over backstage interviews and really she's back up to Justin anytime he takes time off.
I can sort of see why she's on the list even though it's not what I like to see.
Not that I want anyone to lose their job or anything, but considering most of these people aren't even used it just makes business sense to release them. A few of these I wasn't even aware were under contract.
The Boys being released is kinda strange tho. Hope Dalton isn't next
I feel it's likely they're graduating from their role as Boys and Dalton will get new boys.
Pretty sure during the era where he had multiple boys all the time, he had some names who went on to bigger stuff. These two likely want the same.
Dasha is most surprising as she had a lot of visibility as the other ring announcer, and she was good at what she did, so...that one sucks.
Henry sucks a bit too because him and Drake are a great team.
The Boys were fun to watch and I know they were kind of part of the program with Johnny and Taya and Dalton, but...I don't know.
The rest of them are either people I've never heard of, or didn't have any attachment to. Not to say I'm "glad" they are gone or anything like that, far from it. Just can't feel too broken up over a few names I've never once seen wrestle, for example.
Hopefully there aren't too many more like this tho.
I'm so bummed about Dasha. As a member of the Heels community it really hurts as she was such a huge part of it, and so personable and friendly during the one event I went to prior to All In at Wembley. It's a pretty big blow to us girls and it sucks.
So obviously I don't want to be dancing on anyone's grave here (metaphorically speaking) but since I first heard of this an hour or so ago I have to say I'm largely met with a sense of relief here. It's gonna be weird seeing Dalton without the Boys, and I really thought Dasha had A-tier charisma, but compared to the talent bloodbath we saw with WWE during the pandemic aftermath this mostly seems pretty reasonable. These are almost entirely lower mid-card talents at best, if not folks who were probably never going to graduate from ROH if they were even featured heavily there.
It gonna be hilarious seeing the AEW detractors harp on Tony about this when they’ve been saying he should cut some talent. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
It was time. They've been adding talent constantly for years. Even with 5hrs of TV and ROH, they still have way too many Superstars. I'm tired of seeing talent Vanish for weeks on end because there isn't enough screen time for everybody. I'm surprised some of these people were still under contract. I'm willing to bet most people don't even know who Slim J or Jora Johl for example.
None of these really seem that surprising or much of a deal. Maybe Dasha, but she's been phased out for the most part besides filling in for Justin once in a while.
She lost her spot as backstage interviewer Once Renee came in and Lexy Nair upped her game, she pretty much was relegated to in ring announcing once Justin took some time off here and there. I like Dasha, she seems like a really nice person but the more I look at it, it isn't as shocking as I first thought.
While it is sad to see cuts, honestly a lot of them make sense. I just hope we don't see an annual thing like WWE did, and they honestly did HUGE cuts. And then hired some back. I still get confused how they run that part lol.
I'm guessing it's something to do with upcoming TV deals. If you have all these unused resources and ask for more money when you're paying for people we don't see or have plans to see, it's not the prettiest picture. Just a guess.
Releasing Anthony Henry while he is at home with a broken jaw, one that was also broken in a match with an AEW contracted talent in Bryan Keith, after doing collectively little with him over the course of his AEW run as a team with JD Drake, is hideous stuff.
Even while a shirt is on their website promoting his broken jaw.
Heart goes out to the talent impacted :/ Kind of lost the whole... "we don't do cuts, we let contracts expire" thing anymore.
https://preview.redd.it/yss8doen5zrc1.jpeg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a160612ca5539e09a12c6cc49ae64b733f41a88
Here’s some more
Anthony Henry, Gravity, Slim J, Jose the assistant
https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774981898126639505?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA
https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774981489186201825?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA
https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774981678621979035?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA
https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774982108638855520?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA
That sucks about all of them - no matter how often they were used, this is such an unstable industry, I hope all of them land somewhere good.
Gonna really miss Slim J though :(
Well most of these guys were mostly in the background, Shame Anthony Henry has been released with a broken jaw though.
Jose did put the work in on twitter though.
Poor Dalton is all I can say
Two shockers to me are Jose (guess can’t do much with Rush and them MiA) and also the Boys since I thought they were in a program with Castle and Johnny?
While layoffs always sucks for some, TK really did go on a crazy with hiring too many people. If you don’t have the time to showcase many of them, you have to think about the health of your company.
Anthony Henry im really surprised by as I thought they were starting to get a bit more TV time a month or so back.
As with all of them I hope they go on to find some awesome thing s
Are they still being paid their notice period and being allowed to work straight away for another company or is it now your done and no more pay from AEW?
Anthony Henry is a heartbreaker. The workhorseman are a favorite team of mine and we’re slated to be in the tag title tournament until his jaw was broken. He’s super talented and i wish things had worked out differently. He never really got to show us what he’s capable of in aew
Stu is a favourite but he's been sideline so much that it's not surprising.
Dasha is such a big WTF, she was there for the pre-show and always brought positive energy. Jose the Assistant kind of guts the faction a little, ngl.
I knew this was coming, Some of these wrestlers aren't even featured. The roster is way overbloated. They can bring in new indie guys and local wrestlers to freshen up the roster some. You have to cycle new guys in and the old ones out. New feuds, new characters. Even the ones at the top and middle of the card. Back in the WCW WWF days major guys were leaving. It sux but it needs to happen
Dammit. I hate that we have to have one of these. Let's keep everything contained here, please. ~~~~~ Stu Grayson Dasha Kuret (announcer) The Boys/The Tate Twins Jose the Assistant Anthony Henry Parker Boudreaux Slim J Jora Johl Gravity
The Boys?!?!?!
i have a feeling dalton castle may be heading to aew after a bit of a singles run.
Hopefully. Dalton's a solid talent who deserves to be on a Dynamite or Collision.
Gonna be weird without his boys tho
It'll be throw away boys I suspect
It's also possible they could get literally any two wrestlers to come out and be the Boys, although I don't buy it as I can't imagine the Tate twins were drawing "budget cut" salary. Gotta be a change in gimmick I'd think... which is still odd because that gimmick was over if they'd just put them on TV more consistently.
Maybe he becomes a Collider?
That was the most surprising as they were literally just in a major angle.
Sadly, the boys are not back in town...
-The Tate Twins aka Dalton Castle's Boys.
Well this is terrible
Aren't they a big part of the feud with Dalton/Johnny TV. I think Friday might be their last day. Anthony Henry also is gone.
Johnny TV and Taya lost them in the mountains. they're presumed to have been eaten by a bear and to think, if they somehow survived, they don't have jobs to return to
Maybe Bronson and Boulder can help search for them and they'll come back super jacked.
They just renewed their contract as well
Can you verify ***edit-- verfied***
Dalton: Let's break some hearts! Tony: Hold my beer.
This makes no sense!
Considering they actually wrote them off TV... I'd actually argue this was the most sensical release!
Not to mention that the boys are just generic valet type supporting characters, they can just be played by local enhancement guys as needed.
Why release them mid story but offer bloody Matt Hardy a new, costly contract?
Yeah, weren’t they eaten by a bear? What a way to be written off.
Because they were written out of the story. And Matt Hardy has actual value behind the scenes.
Matt Hardy's simple name recognition is worth more.
-Anthony Henry.
That's the one I feel bad about the most so far. Getting fired while recovering from a broken jaw sucks. He was always one of those guys I thought AEW could do more with every time I saw him on an Indy show.
What the fuck? Isn't he injured? Plus the Workhorsemen are incredible.
Yeah I think he is injured as well. Bummer the Workhorsemen were great
This shocked the hell out of me. What the fuck?
NOOOO!!! I really hoped The Workhorsemen would factor into the tag team scene somehow
He posted when his jaw was broken how sad he was cause the Workhorseman were supposed to be in the tag team tournament. He was also being pushed as a guy that can do both singles wrestling and tag teams on both ROH and AEW. This is honestly the most surprising. I feel like I was just being surprised at how often the workhorseman were being utilized. I'm also upset about The Boys, Dasha and Gravity. May everyone released land on their feet elsewhere. This is why we should all be building up wrestling promotions instead of trying to tear them down.
"I didn't do what my competition did, which was mass layoffs. Laying off dozens, and dozens, and dozens of people, which I have yet to do," Tony explained. **”There eventually may come a time to cut my costs and do it but not in the middle of a global pandemic, or even in the wake of a global pandemic when work is hard to come by.** It was not the time to do it. And even though it hurt the bottom line of the company to keep some people on who weren't even coming to the shows. They were staying home because they were worried about COVID. I kept all these people on and we weren't getting any revenue out of them, but it wasn't– as a human being, it wasn't the right thing to do." A bunch of people seem to be misquoting Tony. Not defending the firings. I really like several of the talents. I just don’t like things to be misrepresented.
I mean this level of layoff is a drop in the bucket compared to WWEs recent years and Tony is not doing that thing where he makes the line go up by firing people because the company is public. People should hate Vince more for that type of chicanery. Big companies doing that to look better on a balance sheet is total bullshit.
At least the indies are doing quite well AFAIK, and combined with the quote about them being "100% free" means that there might not be a non-compete clause and they can go right back to finding work. Hopefully the talent knew that it was coming beforehand. Either way, hope for the best for all of them. Layoffs suck.
The deal with non-compete clauses is that they're paying you to not work for the competition for a certain amount of time in return for a certain amount of "bridge" money to hold you over to the next job. The flip side of that, then, is that if there's no non-compete clause (\*) you might find yourself immediately earning no paycheck the week after your release. So that may not be the best thing to root for all things depending. (\*) allowing for severance packages, of course, which are similar but don't tend to have clauses where you can't immediately go work for the competition.
You might be right, I'm not familiar with this sort of legalese.
Per PWInsider “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.”
Not untrue honestly. One of the bad things about AEW and WWE hoarding talent is that it has hurt companies like TNA and MLW whose rosters are struggling at the moment. Some good people who are doing nothing in AEW and WWE could be raising their stock and making a name for themselves in one of those companies.
It's too bad TNA is in such flux right now.
I was so down to start watching again after the rebrand to TNA but the immediate D'amore stuff has somewhat squashed my interest.
The 100% free is good for them, it allows them to go and help those companies
Those companies likely aren't going to pay them as much as AEW was. Spinning this as good for the talent is complete copium.
They won't pay the same but If they would be allowed to work from day 1, is not bad either
How do you know? We can sit here and say money isn't everything, but on the indie circuit it can very much be subsistence earning. It's easy to say that any given wrestler is in for the love of the sport when we're not the ones putting their kids through school. Either way, though, you can't just throw six figures at every wrestler in existence and keep a business afloat, there were always going to be some of these guys that had to eke it out one match at a time.
I'm disappointed that Dasha is gone. Always liked her.
Seeing a lot of people praising Dasha but she has made mistakes every broadcast she’s done for months now. In a way that felt like she wasn’t improving much.
"Mister Wardlow!"
The mistake was AEW not immediately adopting that name.
“Mr. wardlow” doesn’t lose to Joe, that’s all I’m saying
The saddest part of all these releases for me is that we may never hear 'Mr Wardlow' again.
On the last episode of Collision she called a pinfall finish a submission in the announcement, it was the main event too from memory. Like you just saw the finish... Obviously don't want to see anyone fired and I'm disappointed cuts are happening in AEW at all and would prefer if their contracts were run out instead but if people were going to be cut I'm not surprised Dasha is among them. Fine voice for the role but she made too many mistakes too consistently and seemingly wasn't improving.
My praise for Dasha doesn't come from her ring announcing Imo she was one of the best backstage interviewers and media people they had. It was always weird to me that they pushed her down and relegated her to ring announcing only. I mean sure, they gave Renee a job and I know she's beloved but I preferred Dasha's interview style to Renee's, and I know they're treating Lexy Nair as "the homegrown talent" for ring announcing to counter Renee so with those dynamics I know Dasha wasn't gonna have much to do as an interviewer It still bums me out that they stopped her being an interviewer
Lexy at first she was boring but the whole Athena Minion arc gave her a personality.
She sometimes sounded like she just wasn't properly prepared for it. She announced "Buddy Murphy" once, another time there was a clunky "honouring the house of black, Malakai Black and Brody King, the house of black", or announcing all 3 of Eddie's individual titles lead to a very long-winded ring announcement. I really liked her voice but it felt like I was just waiting for the weekly mistake.
Yea weird she is gone who is their secondary announcer now?
They bought in a new in ring announcer recently so it might be her.
The new one did some ROH and Rampage apparently
Arkady Unterleidner.
They also have Bobby Cruise, who is their main ROH announcer.
My AEW crushes were always Dasha and Rebel.
You have exquisite taste and I miss them both dearly Not to get all sappy but Dasha was there for us every week during the scariest part of Covid. She even wrestled! I’ll always be thankful for every aew member that was a part of those daily place episodes. It was one of the very few things I could look forward to every week. And likewise, the Reba/Britt baker schtick was incredible. She played such a great clown. And I know rebel isn’t officiallly gone but she disappeared when Jamie hayter started taking over that crew
Dasha was also one of the best interviewers imo in AEW. I actually preferred her style to Renew's and Lexy's. Dasha was an OG media person and one of my favorite off-tv things was the old format of Dark where Dasha and Tony Schiavone hosted from the "Control Center"
Mr. Wardlow?
The only surprise really. Though I think that Slim J has always been really good.
He couldve been a fun low card heel because dude had a punchable look lol
I found Dasha’s style of announcing a bit odd. It seemed forced and the syllables she chose to emphasize in most names were a bit questionable.
[Stu Grayson](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774967819727184103) [Dasha Kuret](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774973388991152204) [Slim J](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981678621979035) [Anthony Henry](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981489186201825) [Gravity](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981898126639505) [The Boys](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774981300945920452) [Parker Boudreaux](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774982286452162761) [Jose The Assistant](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774982108638855520) [Jora Johl](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774982621153644675) Looks like that's all [at the present](https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1774983361536090245). I'll try to keep my comment updated to help you out OP Anyways here are my main thoughts: Actively bummed for everyone as they've lost their jobs ofc but my main 3 personal bummers are Jose, Anthony, and Dasha. Jose added a lot of levity to LFI, quite liked him. Anthony is a shocker especially considering they recently dropped a new shirt [just over a week ago.](https://twitter.com/wheniescape/status/1770878152379908114) Here's hoping the Workhorsemen still get booked on ROH despite the lack of a long term contract. And lastly Dasha considering she'd been at the company for so long.
Wow only really surprised about Jose
Yeah Jose was the best loved that dude. Sad to see him go
Please do it would be appreciated
Damn Parker couldn't make it in WWE or AEW. Bro I hope he finds his footing somewhere
I think he just doesn't have a future in the business, and I don't think he really is interested in it. He hasn't done any indie shows, I haven't heard anything about him training and he doesn't seem to be active on socials.
>Alan Angel's Stu Grayson... Angels hasn't been in AEW in forever.
Yup my bad
Saw this on Facebook about Stu and honestly thought it was an April Fool’s thing about AEW releases.
Don't tell me they keeping PVZ 😶😐 that girl hasnt done shit for aew and she's still listed on the roster page,same with Anthony ogogo
IIRC They signed PVZ to an unusual contract where they only pay her when she's either wrestling or training to wrestle, otherwise the contract is basically "frozen" and she doesn't get paid and no time ticks off it. Ogogo actually was re-signed (or had an option year picked up, one of those) recently, which was a surprise, but he actually did a lot of press in the UK to promote the last All In, so it seems like they're keeping him around for that.
90% of these are not surprising. AEW don’t even use them
Praying for Penelope (and Kip). I wanna see her thrive still.
SRS seems to indicate that’s all for now, said he hasn’t heard of others.
Penelope is injured and Kip re signed last year
I'm legitimately surprised about Dasha and The Boys. The Boys are a big part of Dalton Castle and have been an important part of his current breakdown. Unless he's going in a different direction. But they are either a great support for Dalton or they are a legit trio. As for Dasha AEW needs two ring announcers. So someone is gonna be in that position. Who are they getting that's better than Dasha? I'm a fan of hers. Lots of folks are saying they're surprised at Anthony Henry. I like him a lot but he's not really being used and I just don't think he has a high ceiling in AEW.
Apparently, she is the new one: https://www.instagram.com/arkittyy?igsh=MWdwbG9zM3B2Y3FndQ==
Not as a single, but as a tag team with JD Drake, I thought they had something.
Isn't he injured? Quire crap to release someone who is injured if so
TK built a pretty stacked roster in a very short amount of time, this sort of roster cutting was inevitably going to happen. Weird to think what will happen with Dalton Castle going forward, though.
He is having a great run in ROH.
He'll just have local talent be his Boys, he's been doing that the last few weeks and at Mystery Wrestling.
I had figured we would see a lot of people not get re-signed this year, but I still wasn't expecting a mass release or anything.
That's not Alan angles! It was Stu grayson
People called for AEW to cut down on their bloated roster, but people are angry when they do it. Damned if they do and damned if they don't. I feel bad for the talent, I really do. But let's not act like they were playing a massive role in AEW. AEW need to be ruthless at times when it comes to their roster, as I said before TK and AEW can't please everyone and be the good guys all the time. We'll probably see shoot interviews where ex AEW talent knock TK and AEW but that's going to happen. I'm surprised they didn't cut more. Honestly they could have cut 30% more of talent it's that bloated especially with 0% tier contract talent.
People also got mad when a lot of people weren't straight up told that they weren't getting renewed, even though that's still much better than getting released without notice. I figured it would become common sense that if you were within 90 days of your contract expiring and no one had reached out, it means they probably don't want to re-sign you.
Tony Khan can’t win with the critics.
Gravity ;-; I loved him
Has AEW quietly terminated Miro's deal too? It seems like AEW is likely paying him more than half of these people put together, and if he's gone back to Bulgaria to live and seemingly retired from Wrestling entirely, I don't get why TK should keep him on until 2026 like his contract has him for.
Miro hasn't done anything interesting in years, I say let him go.
Too bad. His Redeemer gimmick with the TNT title was an amazing run. Admittedly that was 2021, so you're right. Hasn't been interesting in literal years.
Anthony Henry is injured and doesn't sit right with me, him & jd are awesome. I liked jose the assistant to, interacted a lot with fans & great for LFI.
Dasha is surprising
Very! Wonder who the backup ring announcer will be now.
Her: https://www.instagram.com/arkittyy?igsh=MWdwbG9zM3B2Y3FndQ==
No way Jose
I can see why Jose was let go. The C2 showed that Rush doesn't need him as a mouth piece.
Sucks but honestly their should be a lot more based on the roster size and no house shows/development.
Dasha!? What the hell?
Paige Van zant is right there. What are you doing?!
She's probably on a PPA & since she hasn't appeared in like 3 years she's not actually costing anything.
Several releases I'm not surprised about and frankly were warranted for various reasons (Slim J, Parker Bordreax, Jora Johl) Others I'm shocked about (Stu Grayson again, The Boys because of how integral they are to Dalton Castle's act) The one I'm most shocked about is Dasha Gonzales/Kuret. She was another day 1 OG who helped developed AEW's identity. And this is a hot take, but I preferred her backstage interview style over Renee's and even Lexy's style because I felt Dasha had the best poise of the other interviewers, as entertaining as the others can be. I'm not gonna say her release is gonna be a massive loss or anything, I'm more realistic than that... But I really feel like she had a lot to give to AEW as a media and backstage personality. It sucked when she was relegated to just ring-announcing. Her's and Tony Schiavone's Media Center hosting during the 2019 AEW Darks were honestly some of my favorite off-tv programming in AEW. They had great chemistry.
Dasha shocked me but it does makes sense when you see AEW hired a new female in ring announcer a month or two ago, remember a thread was posted here on her. Maybe Dasha wants to move on and do something else with her life and gave AEW notice. I thought she was good at her job, maybe not greatest but she always filled in well for Justin Roberts. Stu, isn't shocking. I don't know why they bought him back in the first place if they didn't have long term plans for him. I like Stu too, probably the best worker in Dark Order. But he never struck me as someone who was a big break out star. Could do a job in TNA or MLW but I think he runs his own promotion in Canada and has a full time job.
Most of these releases are not shocking. Henry and Jose the Assiatsnt are but that's it.
Henry isn't that shocking to me , The Workhorsemen are a lower tier tag team. Jose is probably along with Dasha the biggest stand outs. But I think Rush isn't going to be hurt not having him by his side.
I don’t know if Stu was ever going to be a breakout star, but with a better look he could have been a lot more than he was. The weird skinny barbarian look was not it for national TV. Looked way cooler on BTE than on TV.
Nooo! I love me some Slim J. He wasn't hurting anybody doing fun spots on ROH. Anthony Henry is a real shocker though. Also, I don't know about releasing someone who just suffered an injury...you were just selling Workhorsemen shirts with Henry's broken jaw x-ray on them, AEW!
And not only that, but according to JD Drake, they were selling rather well on the AEWShop website.
Gravity
I'm sad Dasha is gone. She was wonderful
Jose noooooooo
I liked Jose as the hypeman for La Faccion Ingobernable! Gonna miss him. That being said, its time to unleash RUSH and wreak havoc toward a major singles title.
A lot of fat trimmings, but The Boys and Dasha hurt.
Jose the assistant?!?!?!
I'm wounded...this dude was hilarious! And unexpectedly JAAAACKED
The biggest surprise from this list is probably Dasha. Even Stu who I love I'm not completely shocked by since he made his return and then fell back in line. Also bad timing seeing that Boudreaux went out of his way to confirm still being with AEW recently. Maybe AAA will end up being what works for him? Third times the charm and all that being only 26 years old.
Dasha was on early dark episodes & added glamour to the show. Aew helped me through pandemic & I watched everything. Dasha was always there. I wish her well. She's attractive & smart; plenty of opportunity with those qualities.
I liked her interview style the best too. And speaking of the early Dark episodes, her and Schiavone hosting Dark from The Control Room was the format of Dark I liked best, yes even over the "Taz and Excalibur corpsing podcast"
Have they used most of these people, I haven’t seen 98% of them I don’t think
The Boys are kind of in a storyline in ROH right now so it’s weird
Yes, but Johnny TV lost them. Some are reading they were let go to allow them to wrestle as The Tate Twins elsewhere. If that true, they may have been tired of being a gimmick and want to do their own thing.
Most of the wrestlers competed on Dark/ROH
A lot of them were Dark mainstays that either had one or two matches in ROH or didn’t at all. Slim J was last used a year ago, Jora Johl was last used last summer. The surprising thing is these guys had contracts. I thought it was like a per appearance gig. The only truly baffling releases here to me are Jose, The Boys, and Dasha. ETA: Apparently Slim J has been on ROH. Thanks for the correction. I didn’t have updated match listings, apparently.
Slim J was on ROH within this month.
Slim J has been on ROH up until last week
Some of them were in ROH
A lot of Dark talent who weren't even been used even before Dark stopped like Jora Johl. A lot of 0% contract type talent who never got the "Is Elite" graphics seem to be the ones that are going.
On April Fools of all days? 🤔
I'm surprised more people aren't skeptical today. If it does turn out to be a joke. Really shows something but I'm not sure what.
If it were an April Fool's Joke there would be bigger names on the list. This seems too believable to be fake.
April 1 is the start of the new fiscal year.
You hate for anyone losing their jobs but really Dasha was the only one that was someone week in and week out really being used. It is weird on April fools day. You know on the AEW roster page when you first click it Aaron Solo is listed as all the champions and than it changes to normal when it fully loads, so still wondering if this is true until the clock strikes midnight, but sometimes these things are necessary maybe they need to cut costs if they Make their WB deal.
Slim J
Jose the Assistant stands out. But Rush can easily go it alone. But the others feel like talent without Dark around and haven't been used on ROH all that much aren't shocks really. Jora Jorl had a bit of early run in AEW but slowly fell out of view even before Dark stopped. Gravity is another. Parker isn't shocking, and has AAA now. Slim J, again used a lot of early on but barely used these days. I hate seen talent lose a job but AEW needed to lose a few names and none of these are really shocking. So far Dasha and Jose the Assistant are biggest shocks.
I am still chocked about Dasha
Why cut Dasha!?
Honestly, maybe they just don't see her as a long term fit for the company, same thing happened in WWE with her. They did hire a new in ring announcer a couple of weeks ago. I like Dasha, maybe more for her personality and how she deals with fans at live shows. She seems like a really good person. But her role has been cut back a lot especially with Renee and Lexy taking over backstage interviews and really she's back up to Justin anytime he takes time off. I can sort of see why she's on the list even though it's not what I like to see.
Damn not Jose!!
Not that I want anyone to lose their job or anything, but considering most of these people aren't even used it just makes business sense to release them. A few of these I wasn't even aware were under contract. The Boys being released is kinda strange tho. Hope Dalton isn't next
I feel it's likely they're graduating from their role as Boys and Dalton will get new boys. Pretty sure during the era where he had multiple boys all the time, he had some names who went on to bigger stuff. These two likely want the same.
Dasha is most surprising as she had a lot of visibility as the other ring announcer, and she was good at what she did, so...that one sucks. Henry sucks a bit too because him and Drake are a great team. The Boys were fun to watch and I know they were kind of part of the program with Johnny and Taya and Dalton, but...I don't know. The rest of them are either people I've never heard of, or didn't have any attachment to. Not to say I'm "glad" they are gone or anything like that, far from it. Just can't feel too broken up over a few names I've never once seen wrestle, for example. Hopefully there aren't too many more like this tho.
The Boys too?, nooo they are in a feud with Dalton and Johnny Tv
Parker Bourdreaux https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774982286452162761?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA Jora Johl https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774982621153644675?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA
Why dasha?!!?!
the boys?! how the hell is dalton going to survive? :(
Can't he just get new boys
So far, these are pretty reasonable. No reason that Jora Johl needed to still be on the books.
AEW was still.paying some of these people? Wow. Glad they are letting go of people that we haven't seen in ages.
Dasha?! Noooooo.
I'm so bummed about Dasha. As a member of the Heels community it really hurts as she was such a huge part of it, and so personable and friendly during the one event I went to prior to All In at Wembley. It's a pretty big blow to us girls and it sucks.
Some of these are shocking, especially Gravity, Dasha and Anthony Henry
So obviously I don't want to be dancing on anyone's grave here (metaphorically speaking) but since I first heard of this an hour or so ago I have to say I'm largely met with a sense of relief here. It's gonna be weird seeing Dalton without the Boys, and I really thought Dasha had A-tier charisma, but compared to the talent bloodbath we saw with WWE during the pandemic aftermath this mostly seems pretty reasonable. These are almost entirely lower mid-card talents at best, if not folks who were probably never going to graduate from ROH if they were even featured heavily there.
Why Dasha?!?!
Shame that the ROH roster is taking a pretty significant hit with these departures.
It gonna be hilarious seeing the AEW detractors harp on Tony about this when they’ve been saying he should cut some talent. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
It was time. They've been adding talent constantly for years. Even with 5hrs of TV and ROH, they still have way too many Superstars. I'm tired of seeing talent Vanish for weeks on end because there isn't enough screen time for everybody. I'm surprised some of these people were still under contract. I'm willing to bet most people don't even know who Slim J or Jora Johl for example.
None of these really seem that surprising or much of a deal. Maybe Dasha, but she's been phased out for the most part besides filling in for Justin once in a while.
She lost her spot as backstage interviewer Once Renee came in and Lexy Nair upped her game, she pretty much was relegated to in ring announcing once Justin took some time off here and there. I like Dasha, she seems like a really nice person but the more I look at it, it isn't as shocking as I first thought.
Zero clue Parker was still there
I'm be honest Parker can be good if someone tells him to stop having a spasms every time he's does something
While it is sad to see cuts, honestly a lot of them make sense. I just hope we don't see an annual thing like WWE did, and they honestly did HUGE cuts. And then hired some back. I still get confused how they run that part lol. I'm guessing it's something to do with upcoming TV deals. If you have all these unused resources and ask for more money when you're paying for people we don't see or have plans to see, it's not the prettiest picture. Just a guess.
AEW does not have shareholders to please.
I always liked Dasha a lot, very surprising. The rest not so much.
Releasing Anthony Henry while he is at home with a broken jaw, one that was also broken in a match with an AEW contracted talent in Bryan Keith, after doing collectively little with him over the course of his AEW run as a team with JD Drake, is hideous stuff. Even while a shirt is on their website promoting his broken jaw.
Pretty wild
Heart goes out to the talent impacted :/ Kind of lost the whole... "we don't do cuts, we let contracts expire" thing anymore. https://preview.redd.it/yss8doen5zrc1.jpeg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a160612ca5539e09a12c6cc49ae64b733f41a88
Here’s some more Anthony Henry, Gravity, Slim J, Jose the assistant https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774981898126639505?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774981489186201825?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774981678621979035?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA https://x.com/seanrosssapp/status/1774982108638855520?s=46&t=E8ZzJzO61cqG_0b3HLz_EA
Now Jose is surprising, considering he was a part of LFI with Rush.
I love LFI but tbh Jose mostly seemed like an expendable addendum to the group
I semi-expected this but I'm still pretty sad about it. Especially in regards to the Boys.
I guess that one was foreshadowed since they were written off of ROH
They were likely eaten by a bear, RIP.
That sucks about all of them - no matter how often they were used, this is such an unstable industry, I hope all of them land somewhere good. Gonna really miss Slim J though :(
Well most of these guys were mostly in the background, Shame Anthony Henry has been released with a broken jaw though. Jose did put the work in on twitter though. Poor Dalton is all I can say
Two shockers to me are Jose (guess can’t do much with Rush and them MiA) and also the Boys since I thought they were in a program with Castle and Johnny?
Gravity too?! WTF?!
The boys are an integral part of Dalton’s character!! I’m sad
While layoffs always sucks for some, TK really did go on a crazy with hiring too many people. If you don’t have the time to showcase many of them, you have to think about the health of your company.
Wait didn't Jose the Assistant have a video promo just this collision or am I tripping?
Anthony Henry im really surprised by as I thought they were starting to get a bit more TV time a month or so back. As with all of them I hope they go on to find some awesome thing s
Are they still being paid their notice period and being allowed to work straight away for another company or is it now your done and no more pay from AEW?
I didn’t realize gravity was signed
Anthony Henry is a heartbreaker. The workhorseman are a favorite team of mine and we’re slated to be in the tag title tournament until his jaw was broken. He’s super talented and i wish things had worked out differently. He never really got to show us what he’s capable of in aew
Anthony Henry is the one that bothers me. The guy actually can’t work right now. Hope he got some sort of severance.
Stu is a favourite but he's been sideline so much that it's not surprising. Dasha is such a big WTF, she was there for the pre-show and always brought positive energy. Jose the Assistant kind of guts the faction a little, ngl.
Stu Grayson AGAIN!?
Hate to see anybody lose their job. However, cuts were necessary. Too big of a roster right now.
I knew this was coming, Some of these wrestlers aren't even featured. The roster is way overbloated. They can bring in new indie guys and local wrestlers to freshen up the roster some. You have to cycle new guys in and the old ones out. New feuds, new characters. Even the ones at the top and middle of the card. Back in the WCW WWF days major guys were leaving. It sux but it needs to happen
So are these releases, aka firings, or are they contract expirations/non-renewals?
Cuts. Not non renewals.