Tony Khan breaking up major faction worried former AEW star: "Things started to look a little grim"

A former AEW star has admitted that Tony Khan breaking up a faction was worrisome. He also said that things started to look a little grim.

Brian Pillman Jr was a part of AEW from 2019 to 2023. Although not a regular fixture on the main shows, he often competed on Dark. He was in a faction with Griff Garrison and Julia Hart known as the Varsity Blonds. However, the faction ultimately split up, and he has now revealed what he felt as a result of that.

Pillman, now known as Lexis King in WWE, was speaking with No Contest Wrestling when he said:

“Things started to look a little grim when they sort of removed Julia [Hart] from the group. You know, I thought she was a very imperative part of it. I was very much a huge fan of AEW when I was there, and I still am very much a huge fan, and I wish them all the best.” [H/T Wrestling Inc]

Lexis King recalls the creative freedom he had in AEW

In the same interview, the WWE star revealed the amount of creative freedom he had in Tony Khan’s company and how that sometimes was counterproductive.

“One of the greatest things, and maybe one of the worst things about All Elite Wrestling, was just the utter amount of creative freedom we had. I mean, we had so much. I remember Tony [Khan] coming up to me like, 'Hey I'm putting you and Griff [Garrison] together. ... we'll just call you The Blondes for now.' ... I thought The Blondes had a ring to it, but we need a little something extra ... I thought, well there's a movie called The Varsity Blues, and we're The Blondes, why don't we do The Varsity Blondes,” he said.

He is currently going strong in NXT and will hope to get a run on the main roster soon.