Over the past few weeks, there has been a great deal of confusion over AEW releases, with it initially believed Malakai Black had been let out of his contract, with Buddy Matthews following him out the door following Grand Slam. Now though, it’s known neither man was allowed out of their deals despite wanting to return to WWE. And according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Tony Khan has decided nobody is being permitted out of their deals early to return to WWE. And he would note that if wrestlers choose to sit at home, he can extend their contracts, seemingly keeping them out of WWE’s hands even longer.
That’s the doctrine. Tony Khan made that very clear, I guess, in the last couple of days. So now it’s just he’s not being released. Buddy Matthews isn’t being released. Now, they may be back sooner than before or whatever, but that’s the situation. I think they both wanted, you know what the situation is, they’re wanting to go and try to get a way out. What we talked about last night, and that was the decision that was made.
It’s not to say it’s hard and fast, and there will be no way, and he’ll never give anybody a release, but I think it’s pretty much the deal that if this happened in the other company, would those people get releases? And the answer is no, and they signed the contract, basically. Now their option is to sit at home, and he can extend the contract if they sit at home or wrestle. So now they’re going to wrestle.
Dave MeltzerIt’s known WWE reached out to several wrestlers who had previously worked for Triple H about possibly returning. With some declining and making Khan aware, where others would request their releases due to Vince McMahon no longer being there to hinder their careers. Nevertheless, WWE and AEW are competitors, and it’s doubtful that if things were swapped, WWE would simply let contracted wrestlers leave to join AEW. In fact, they had Mustafa Ali sit at home for months rather than allow him to depart, and while they did let Andrade out of his deal (which is ironic, as he is rumored to be one of the names who wants to return), that was likely only done to keep Charlotte Flair happy.
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