Former AEW star breaks silence after release from Tony Khan’s promotion

A former AEW star has finally broken his silence on the heels of his departure from Tony Khan's promotion. The talent in question is Stu Grayson.

It was reported earlier this month that Grayson had been released from All Elite Wrestling. The 35-year-old star was one of the earliest signees of the Jacksonville-based promotion. Alongside Evil Uno, Grayson was one of the foundational members of The Dark Order. He showcased his in-ring prowess in matches featuring top stars including Kenny Omega, Hangman Adam Page and Jon Moxley.

The former Player Dos left The Dark Order to align with The Righteous in ROH. The two sides settled their differences in a Fight Without Honor Trios match in which Grayson's former stable-mates emerged victorious. Grayson remained absent from AEW programming since, except for a victory over Robert Anthony in a Dark match on Dynamite in August, 2023.

The Canadian star recently shared an update following his All Elite Wrestling departure on social media. Taking to Twitter/X, Grayson alluded to speculations regarding the nature of and causes behind the spate of releases carried out by the Tony Khan-led promotion recently.

"Whatever it is you read online about me and the recent situation, just know that it is not true. Just people spreading rumors and making things up," wrote Grayson.

Check out the tweet below:

This was not the first time the former A1 Tag Team Champion was released from All Elite Wrestling. The promotion let Grayson go after his contract expired in 2022, but the latter was re-signed in March, 2023.

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Eric Bischoff praised Tony Khan for recent AEW releases

All Elite Wrestling has recently been the center of discourse among wrestling fans and analysts. In the aftermath of CM Punk's public criticism of the promotion on The MMA Hour, and AEW releasing a number of its talent for various reported reasons, the company finds itself under close scrutiny over several issues.

Despite being a long-time critic of AEW and its CEO Tony Khan, Eric Bischoff had a surprising response to the recent releases. Speaking on the issues on his 83 Weeks podcast, Easy E said:

"I looked at a post that Tony Khan made a while back when there were releases in WWE when Tony was trying to make himself a babyface by taking a shot at WWE for having to release talent in order to manage expenses. Tony Khan said, 'I would rather get punched in the face business-wise than release people,' and he went on and on in typical Tony Khan fashion, three paragraphs of how he would never do what WWE had just done. I thought of that but I got to be honest with you, it's probably really smart. It may be the only second or third smart thing that Tony's done in a while." [From 18:47 onwards]

AEW is moving ahead, however, as fans near the highly anticipated upcoming pay-per-view, Dynasty 2024.

Thoughts on AEW's recent releases? Sound off below!