"This company needs to wrap up," "Budget cuts are coming" - Fans react to rumors of AEW spending shocking amount on talent contracts

A report recently revealed the amount of money AEW allegedly spends on its talent's contracts. Since then, fans have reacted to these reports online.

All Elite Wrestling has been aggressive in the free-agent market since it was founded in 2019, but this year has seen a spree of big-name signings unlike anything before. The young promotion has been snapping up top free agents one after another for months now.

People like Jon Moxley, Christian Cage, Adam Copeland, Will Ospreay, Bryan Danielson, and many more have all joined the promotion. There are still several stars under contract who are not often used or are absent completely. People like Miro have been part of the company but have barely been seen on TV lately.

Recently, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that AEW is paying $104 million per year on talent alone. This is absurd, considering that the company has been struggling to fill arenas.

Since the report came out, fans have taken to social media to express their shock at the number. Check out some of the reactions below:

Screengrab of fan reactions (source: x.com)

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Konnan stated that AEW President Tony Khan could release more stars from his company

Considering that AEW is probably not turning a profit at the moment, it might have to resort to drastic measures to make up for it. This could result in several stars being released due to budget cuts. WWE releases several stars every year due to its budget cuts, and AEW could do the same.

Recently, All Elite Wrestling did release a few of its talent, but there is still a large number of talent who are not working.

Speaking on his Keepin' It 100 podcast, Konnan believed that Tony Khan will eventually start releasing his talent to make up for the huge amount of money he is paying stars like Mercedes Mone and Will Ospreay.

"How do you in any way justify paying Okada 4 million? [...] Ospreay 4 million [...] We're not talking about how talented he is 'cuz he is. But bro, he's over paying all these people [...] Mone, he's overpaying them [...] but he's gonna have to start releasing people," said Konnan. [3:54 - 4:20]

You can check out his comments in the video below:

It will be interesting to see if Konnan's statement will hold true in the future and Tony Khan will start releasing some of his talent.