Former WWE personality admits to having ill feelings towards AEW after his release

A former AEW name has recently addressed specific details of what went down before his release from the company a few months ago. The former personality was not too pleased with his release.

Kelly is a veteran announcer and commentator with a career spanning almost three decades. He has previously worked for WWE, MLW, ROH, and NJPW, among others before signing with the Tony Khan promotion. He was released from AEW back in March reportedly due to comments he made against fellow commentator Ian Riccaboni.

During a recent virtual signing for K & S WrestleFest, Kevin Kelly went into detail regarding what went down before his release and the ill feelings he still had toward AEW. He then talked about how the disciplinary committee got together to talk about the situation.

"Of course [I have ill feelings towards AEW for how things ended]. I wouldn’t treat my worst enemy like that. Mike Mansury [told me I was being let go]. The Executive Producer, and the new Vice President of Human Resources who I’d never met and spoke to ever before. I knocked the company on Twitter and vented on a voicemail to the H.R. lady that I had been working with. Problem was I never knew where — I brought up this whole thing with Ian (Riccaboni) and they said, ‘Yes, good. Thank you for bringing it up.’ ‘What’s going to happen?’ I said, ‘What’s the process?’ ‘Well, we’ll discuss it, we’ll let you know’ and apparently, the disciplinary got together — committee got together and made a decision."

He talked about how once they made their decision they could not tell him what happened during their meetings as this was a private matter according to them.

"‘Okay, what was the decision?’ ‘Well, we can’t tell you because it’s private.’ ‘Wait a minute, I was the one who was the victim here. I need to know what happened so I could put this to bed in my mind.’ ‘Well, we just can’t tell you.’ ‘Okay, this is very upsetting for me. You have to understand this?’ ‘Nah, we really don’t understand and we don’t care.’ So, whatever. They’ll get theirs." [H/T POST Wrestling]

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The former AEW name admitted he preferred working for NJPW

During the same interview, Kevin Kelly talked about how at the time he wasn't in a great state in terms of mental health and he began to seek help as it was affecting several other areas of his life.

He then talked about how AEW did not do a great job at handling the entire situation, and how by a certain point it was not just about Ian Riccaboni anymore. He then admitted that the working environment was not ideal for him and that he preferred working for NJPW.

"I was not a fit for AEW. I just felt like it was a very different kind of place and very stressful. So many people. There was so much chaos and it just really stressed me out a lot. So, I was much happier in New Japan, except for the flights. " [H/T POST Wrestling]

Now it remains to be seen whether he'll take a step back from wrestling or look to head to another major promotion instead.