Details Behind AEW Releases (Patreon)

Three talent are now gone from AEW.

Malakai Black, Miro and Ricky Starks are all no longer under contract to AEW, Fightful Select has confirmed. All three had been looking to make their exits for quite some time and were removed from the AEW roster page on February 10.

Malakai Black's original deal could have seen him signed well into 2027, at least per Tony Khan's own words a couple of years back. Fightful had reported in December that Malakai Black would be leaving AEW in the coming months, and by January had reported that he would no longer be on TV.

Miro has not wrestled since 2023, and had been discussed for potential creative throughout the year. He's healthy and has been cleared for quite some time, but Fightful reported that he'd asked for his release quite a while back. We're told the situation had gone radio silent for quite some time before the release was official. Miro had not been brought up creatively from what we've heard in about six months, and most everyone we spoke to in AEW had not expected to see him again. Miro signed a long-term contract extension in early 2022 that could have kept him in the company until at least early 2026.

Ricky Starks had asked AEW in late 2023 to not pick up his option that was coming due in the Spring of 2024. AEW did, and then didn't use Starks after that period. We're told he was open to still working and seeing out his AEW deal. Starks was blocked from working a series of GCW shows before his release. His deal would have been up in a few months.

We're told all of these talent are free to go wherever they choose and there are not non-competes associated with the releases.