AEW’s roster could look very different by the time the next year rolls around, and it may happen without a major announcement.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez revealed that AEW could have a significant number of contracts reaching their expiration dates. However, Tony Khan reportedly isn’t planning to release many of those wrestlers before their deals are finished.
According to Alvarez, Khan simply doesn’t like being the person who cuts talent.
Tony Khan doesn’t like to play the bad guy, so he doesn’t like to cut people. He just pays them to do nothing for months and months on end. I’ve been given the impression that there are a lot of AEW contracts he’s not gonna cut, but they are just going to quietly expire, probably like a lot of people.
That could eventually create a major shift in the wrestling free-agent market.
Alvarez believes the bigger impact may not be immediate, but could build over the next several months.
And there’s gonna come a time, maybe in six months, a year, or 18 months down the road, where there’s gonna be a lot of people available.
If that happens, AEW wouldn’t necessarily have one massive roster purge. Instead, wrestlers could gradually become free agents as their contracts expire.
And once enough recognizable names become available, other promotions could suddenly have a lot of talent to choose from.
That could make the next six to 18 months particularly interesting for the wrestling industry.
What do you think about Tony Khan’s approach to handling AEW contracts? Is quietly allowing deals to expire a better strategy than actively releasing wrestlers, or does it simply delay the inevitable and leave AEW carrying unnecessary contracts for months?
