AEW: Contract Updates on Two Major Stars
AEW was hit with the major news this week that both Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes were leaving the company after reported disagreements Cody had with AEW officials regarding a new contract. The news has fans wondering about the contract status of other major stars and executive vice presidents and as a result a few reports have since popped up. The first is regarding Kenny Omega, former AEW World Champion and one of the three remaining EVPs. Dave Meltzer noted on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio that "The Cleaner" still has one year left on his deal, set to expire in February 2023. Omega has been out of action since dropping the AEW World Championship to Hangman Page in November, taking the time to heal from a number of injuries.
Then there's Chris Jericho, the man many believed would be the first former WWE star to wind up back with Vince McMahon's company at some point. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select wrote on Wednesday that Jericho has roughly two years left on his deal and that the company picked up the two-year option on the contract he signed when first joining the promotion in 2019.
Unlike WWE, who released wrestlers in droves in 2020-21, AEW mostly refrained from cutting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of the contracts signed during AEW's first year are on the verge of expiring, something AEW president Tony Khan is well aware of.
"When we started a lot of people had contracts that were a couple of years long and a lot of them are coming up," Khan told TV Insider earlier this month. "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."
