Wrestlers’ Court: AEW releases say more about promotion than its wrestlers

Six years into AEW’s existence, it has reached a point where its wrestlers’ contracts regularly come due.

On February 10, AEW confirmed that it had released wrestlers Malakai Black, Miro and Ricky Starks.

Black last appeared on AEW TV back in November, losing to Adam Cole and hugging him goodbye. Miro signed with AEW in 2020 but was only used sporadically after an initial gimmick misfire. He last appeared in 2023 at the World’s End pay-per-view in a match against Andrade (who himself has come and gone from AEW). Starks was last seen almost a year ago, in March 2024. He has worked on the independents since—although AEW reportedly interfered in a recent GCW booking.

I find Malakai Black’s AEW run most confusing. I loved his character and wrestling style in WWE, although I do think between his appearance and cerebral promo style he should never ever be cast as a babyface. MMA flourishes aside, he reminds me of a post-apocalyptic Jake Roberts.

Black showed up in AEW early after his WWE release. He debuted in July 2021 due to a contractual oversight. At the time released NXT wrestlers were subject to a 30-day non-compete clause, while main roster wrestlers had to wait 90 days before they could fight elsewhere. That provision wasn’t updated by WWE’s lawyers when Black made the main roster, so he was free to go. Black kicked Cody Rhodes and Arn Anderson out of their boots, establishing himself as a heel. He beat Rhodes in August and September, before Cody got the better of him in October.

It was a hot feud, but almost immediately the end of Black as a serious singles threat.

In early 2022, Black recruited Brody King—with whom he had often partnered on the independent scene—to form a tag team called the Kings of the Black Throne. Buddy Matthews joined up in February to create a Freebirds-style unit called the House of Black. I thought this group had real potential. A big bruising superheavyweight in King playing the Terry “Bamm Bamm” Gordy role; a smaller, technically proficient Matthews taking the Buddy “Jack” Roberts slot; and Black as the Michael “PS” Hayes mouthpiece for the group. Just swap out the inherent racism for a Black Metal fixation and they should have been good to go.

Whereas the Freebirds barnstormed their way to individual, tag team and occasional six-man titles, the House of Black’s biggest accolade was a lone AEW trios title, which they won from The Elite (a slumming Kenny Omega and Young Bucks) in March 2023 and lost five months later to the Acclaimed and 60-plus year old Billy Gunn (Julia Hart also collected the women’s TBS championship, to be fair). In May 2023, Black challenged Adam Copeland for the TNT title in a steel cage. He lost after Copeland broke his leg in an ill-advised leap. An aimless tag team program lasted through November, when Black fought Adam Cole and then disappeared.

Miro, wrestling as Alexander Rusev (then just Rusev, a McMahon Mononym), spent ten years with WWE. Apart from injuries he was regularly featured as a “foreign menace” style heel. For reasons known only to Tony Khan, AEW never used this simple but effective formula to inflame audiences. Instead, Miro debuted in September 2020 as Kip Sabian’s wingman (not to be confused with the actual Wingmen stable of enhancement talent). Miro played “The Best Man”—announcing his superiority like a Bulgarian Mr. Perfect. It was an awkward gimmick and alliance. Miro carried silly gimmicks in WWE, but Sabian was nowhere near a serious wrestler or credible threat to any AEW titles. It was a waste of an established talent. Miro turned on Sabian to reset himself by March.

Miro returned to destructive form, starting a feud with Darby Allin and defeating him for the AEW TNT championship in May. He added a dose of religious zealotry to his gimmick, proclaiming himself “God’s Favorite Champion” and “The Redeemer”. I liked this shift. I’m wary of mixing wrestling and religion, but I think it works. Both fields attract outsized personalities. Apparently, God changed His mind, and Miro lost the TNT title in late September to Sammy Guevara.

One year into a reported five-year deal, that was pretty much it for Miro’s AEW career. He appeared occasionally in the fall of 2021, summer of 2022 and spring of 2023. In December of 2023 he worked a program with Andrade, who was also due to leave. This angle saw Miro reunite with his ex-wife CJ Perry, who had worked as Lana in WWE. By some accounts, Miro was often injured. Or working on projects outside wrestling. In any case, his AEW tenure seems more notable for his absence than his contributions to their shows.

As I write this, Miro just had his first post-AEW match in Qatar against the former Alberto del Rio.

Ricky Starks’ AEW tenure differs from Miro’s and Black’s. Starks joined AEW early, after attracting attention in Billy Corgan’s revived NWA. Starks’ wrestling career started in 2012 but I consider him more of an AEW homegrown talent. He joined AEW in June 2020 as part of Cody Rhodes’ TNT Championship open challenge gimmick. He soon partnered with Brian Cage in the villainous Team Taz stable. Starks participated in a December beatdown of Rhodes and Allin that introduced Sting to AEW audiences. He defeated stablemate Cage for the FTW championship and held this unsanctioned belt for over a year, losing it to fellow Team Taz member (and Extreme nepo baby) Hook on July 27, 2022.

Starks turned good following his FTW title loss and entered a brief program where he challenged MJF for the latter’s AEW World championship. This feud played to the promotion’s strengths, featuring two younger, athletic stars who were confident on the microphone and who had put significant work into their characters. Starks came up short against MJF, then feuded with Chris Jericho over a possible induction into Jericho’s Appreciation Society. Starks eventually rebounded, winning the Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament and challenging for CM Punk’s off-label championship. He failed and turned heel as a result. By autumn 2023, Starks teamed with protégé Big Bill to upset FTR for the AEW tag team championship, losing the belts to Sting and Allin in two months. Starks’ last AEW match took place in February 2024 when he and Big Bill lost to Top Flight.

Starks has already resurfaced in WWE’s NXT under the name Ricky Saints. So far, he’s peddling the same character he did in AEW, complete with Michael Jackson pose. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m not a huge Starks mark. I attribute this to AEW, which has assembled a pack of smaller, admittedly talented wrestlers who come across as virtually interchangeable unless they’re working up to the level of a more established opponent. I don’t see Starks’ departure as a huge loss, if only because Sammy Guevara, Daniel Garcia, solo Max Caster, Top Flight, Action Andretti (I think he’s still around), Jack Perry (ditto) and plenty of others hold similar slots.

As a booker, Tony Khan seems less interested in developing individual characters than he is in having archetypes fight each other. Khan has a penchant for David vs. Goliath stories, with the underdog prevailing as of right. Week-to-week it hurts the product’s credibility. AEW wrestlers who do forge their own identity, like MJF or the Acclaimed or Toni Storm deserve credit. AEW seems like a place where wrestlers need to push themselves frequently and consistently, lest they be left on the sidelines.

I imagine that Black will return to WWE, where his real-life spouse Zelina Vega still works. Black is 39 years old, still in his wrestling prime. He is said to be a favorite of Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who was caught off guard by Black’s release. Black showed he could lead a stable of heels, which would fit nicely with the Judgment Day or the struggling Wyatt Sicks. Or he could return to his eerie vigilante babyface character; or the creepy cultish heel we were promised just before he left WWE. I’d love to see him feud with Karrion Kross or CM Punk, for starters.

I have trouble seeing Miro back in the fold. The best part of his act was his partnership with CJ/Lana. WWE is generally averse to religious-themed gimmicks like The Redeemer, and changing geopolitical trends over the last five years make his post-Soviet invader gimmick a complicated, tough sell.

In any case, their departures speak to some of AEW’s broader challenges.

I’m an AEW fan. I accept the formula of one or two great matches plus a fun promo or two as the basis of AEW’s shows. If there’s more to love on a show, great. I hope they realize that they do have more to offer. AEW plays an important, necessary role in American pro wrestling’s ecosystem. It offers a place for non-WWE contracted talent to work and hone their skills—which was the case for Starks until it wasn’t, and which should have applied to Black and Miro more than it did.

AEW features stars outside WWE’s radar (like MJF, Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin or, until recently, Wardlow, the Acclaimed and most of the Don Callis Family) and gives former WWE talent (like Swerve Strickland, FTR, Toni Storm and Juice Robinson) the opportunity to define their characters and showcase their abilities. This leads to better shows all the way around.

Breaking WWE’s near monopoly gives wrestlers leverage in a non-union environment. Plenty of wrestlers including Mick Foley and Chris Jericho agree.

I don’t think it’s fair to consider AEW an immediate competitor to WWE. As deep as Tony Khan’s pockets are, Vince McMahon had a significant advantage in terms of time and money invested in the pro wrestling business.

Like many fans, I have mixed feelings about AEW’s ex-WWE pickups—Miro and Black being examples of how that strategy fails. Six years ago, when AEW was in start-up mode established stars like Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley were essential to drive casual fans to the product. They helped popularize the wealth of younger independent talent that filled out AEW’s roster. I still think they have a role, but Khan seems to rely on them more heavily than I’d like. Khan has signed waves of WWE stars as they’ve been released. I’m glad they’ve found work, but without clear plans or storylines going forward, many of these wrestlers just seem to sit around off TV, working independent dates as AEW contracts allow without mass audience exposure.

The net effect of Khan’s approach has been to age what had been a youthful, dynamic roster and warehouse potentially marketable acts in favor of the same few faces we’ve seen for years.

Presumptive AEW main eventers include Adams Cole and Page, former NJPW champion Jay White, Kenny Omega, MJF, Ricochet, who has elevated himself via his outstanding in-ring performances and revelatory heel work in his feud with Strickland (who’s also on this list, and in my view never should have lost the AEW title), and Will Ospreay. One could credibly headline an AEW card with any combination of the above. Black and Miro should have fit in there too.

There are plenty of underused AEW talents (in house and ex-WWE) who could/should break into the main event scene with the right push, too. Powerhouse Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher to start. Wardlow seemed set up for a monster push. He and Hobbs could feud endlessly up and down the card. Instead Wardlow was shunted to a supporting role with the Undisputed Kingdom. Now he’s all but disappeared like Miro or Black or Starks before their departures.

I’d throw Max Caster on this list. Brian Cage, Big Bill, Juice Robinson (who gives off serious Randy Savage vibes). For the life of me I don’t know why Brody King, who looks and wrestles like the love child of Steve “Dr. Death” Williams and Bruiser Brody, hasn’t been booked as an absolute eater of worlds. Claudio Castagnoli had a pair of ROH World title runs, which should have elevated him instead of making him Moxley’s steppingstone.

I still believe in AEW. WWE started in 1953 as a regional promotion. It didn’t go national until 30 years later and made its share of mistakes during and after expansion. WWE has its own list of talent let go prematurely, or ignored until they got over elsewhere. WWE is well-resourced enough that sooner or later it can sign pretty much anyone it chooses. Just ask Cody Rhodes. Time will tell if AEW grows into this approach.

That said, I am concerned if a promotion is so creatively starved it cannot accommodate more than a few wrestlers on TV at a time. Not every wrestler can or should be in the main event, much less long-term. They should get plenty of opportunities to wrestle, and let the audience decide if they deserve a sustained push. I don’t completely buy the argument that “creative” (in AEW’s case mainly Tony Khan, perhaps to the company’s detriment) has nothing for the wrestlers. Just give them time and a platform and let them wrestle. Lance Storm often said that the only storyline a promotion needs is the one involving its champion—otherwise the presumption should be that everyone on the roster is jockeying for that main event spot. Karrion Kross recently opined that the only wrestlers who are pushed are the champion and their challenger.

Miro, Black and Starks have the tools to build that kind of audience rapport, but only if they have an audience.

TOP PHOTO: Malakai Black at AEW Dynamite, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, January 19, 2022. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com

RELATED LINK

• Previous Wrestlers’ Court columns by Jonathan Schwartz