"Just let them go," "Complete fumble by Tony Khan" - Fans react after reports of several stars potentially leaving AEW for WWE emerge

Recent reports have indicated that several stars could potentially leave AEW for WWE. This has got the attention of fans on social media.

All Elite Wrestling has several stars in their roster whom they have not used in a while. Miro, Ricky Starks, Malakai Black, and Rey Fenix are some names that come to mind. Miro joined the promotion in a promising fashion and was on the receiving end of a massive push. However, his run came to a halt suddenly and he has not been seen on TV since Worlds End 2023.

Ricky Starks' absence from TV is still a big mystery no one has been able to solve. Just a few weeks after losing the AEW World Tag Team Championship, Starks was taken off television. After a year of poor booking, Rey Fenix wanted to leave the Jacksonville-based promotion along with his brother Penta. However, Tony Khan had some other plans as he added injury time to his contract preventing him from exiting. The most recent name to join the list of absentees is Malakai Black who has not wrestled for the promotion since November 2024.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter is now reporting that all the above-mentioned names are not likely to be used in AEW and will possibly join WWE once their contracts expire.

Once this report broke, fans took to social media to give their thoughts on the situation. Most of them appeared to be critical of the AEW President for fumbling and wanting to hold on to stars that didn't want to stick around.

You can check out some of their reactions in the screenshots below:

Fan reactions [Image source: Screenshot of comments on the X post]

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Jim Ross explains why Penta failed in AEW

The Lucha Brothers started off their AEW careers in prominent fashion. They were regularly featured on TV and were on top of the tag team division. They had incredible matches with The Young Bucks and several other tag teams. However, their booking took a hit in the past year which resulted in Penta leaving the company after his contract expired. After weeks of speculation, the luchador debuted in WWE this week on RAW against Chad Gable.

Speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross said that Penta wasn't as big of a success in All Elite Wrestling because the company already had other people who could wrestle a similar style.

“Penta, we had a lot of that kind of style in AEW. He was one of many that did a lot of acrobatics and flying things. He might have been the best at doing it, I’m not saying that. But he wasn’t the only one doing it, so it made it less special. WWE’s got a good stock of luchadores. They got several guys on the roster that have that background. Just gotta be careful of how you book him,” Ross said. [H/T: Ringside News]

Check out his comments in the video below:

It will be interesting to see if Tony Khan will release some of the talents he has not used in recent months.