2022 has been an unprecedented year for All Elite Wrestling. Since the company’s inception in 2019, AEW has been able to control the narrative of what goes on inside its promotion. AEW President Tony Khan has signed desirable free agents and has elected to not renew unwanted contracts. Things began to shift in the early months of this year when co-founder and former AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes announced he was departing the company. From there, AEW struggled with a plethora of talent injuries, as top names like CM Punk, Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, and Kyle O’Reilly spent the bulk of the summer on the shelf. Mix in the recent departures of featured stars like Bobby Fish and Malakai Black, and the uncontrollable variables for AEW continue to pile up.
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Another name that seemed poised to join Black in exiting AEW was stablemate Buddy Matthews. Reports circulated that Matthews was on his way out of the company, and a promo from the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion at a recent independent show seemed to indicate as such.
“Unfortunately, tonight, I’m going to be the bearer of some unfortunate news. As everyone knows, the House of Black has had some issues lately,” Matthews said at Fight Life Pro Wrestling. “As all the members of the house, I speak beyond the wall, we want to thank you all for being members of the house. Unfortunately, I, like some of the other members, need to go away for a while. I need to recalibrate. I need to figure out some things. As my brother Malakai once said, this isn’t goodbye, this is see you later.”
Matthews has seemingly responded to rumors of his exit on Twitter, sharing a gif of Elaine from Seinfeld saying the word “fake” over and over again.
This social media post could be disputing a variety of things related to Matthews at this time. Reports also suggested that The Great Muta spitting green mist in Matthews’s face on Friday’s AEW Rampage: Grand Slam was a way of writing him off television, which Matthews could be saying is “fake.”
Regardless of where Matthews’s future takes him, stablemate Brody King is not going anywhere. King also got in on the cryptic gif tweets this weekend, sharing a motion picture of Jordan Belfort’s famous “I’m not f–king leaving” speech from The Wolf of Wall Street.
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on the House of Black’s future.
