Tony Khan continues to load AEW‘s roster with buzzworthy free agents; over the past few months, stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole have joined the company, among many others.
While these acquisitions have strengthened the company’s roster, they have also garnered some criticism, as some have argued that the promotion has struggled to equally balance the abundance of talent. Likewise, the addition of several new names has pushed some of the performers who were already on the roster to the back of the line. Brian Cage hasn’t been on TV in months, and some AEW originals like Joey Janela rarely get featured on Dynamite or Rampage whatsoever.
Previous reports have noted that a few contracts, like those of Cage and Janela, will be expiring soon, and other deals will continue to come up for renewal over the next several months. In an interview with Scott Fishman of TV Insider, Khan, the CEO of the company, shared his mindset around contract negotiations with current members of the roster. He noted that, throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he wanted to keep people under contract, even if he wasn’t using them, so they could still make money as wrestlers. But now that the roster has grown so much, Khan admitted that he can’t keep everyone. He named “ability” and “fan response” as important factors in his decision-making, and he emphasized his goal to make sure AEW has the best roster possible.
“When we started a lot of people had contracts that were a couple of years long and a lot of them are coming up,” said Khan. “I have really tried hard to be very considerate of the people on the roster, especially going through the pandemic. That encompassed a long period of time where we were still in our first year of television and going into our second.
“I kept a lot of people under contract even though I wasn’t necessarily using them on television because I wanted them to still have paying work, which was hard to come by for wrestling during the pandemic where there weren’t any independent shows. Really only two places were running and the other place was cutting people left and right. I did want to give some job security to people. Now with so many wrestlers coming in, I can’t renew all the contracts. I’ve had to make some tough choices based on ability, fan response, or both. I try to maintain the best roster I can for the company and fans.”
Time will tell how AEW’s lineup of talent continues to evolve from here on out.
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