Tony Khan could release more AEW stars after "overpaying" Mercedes Mone and Will Ospreay, says veteran, in a cost-cutting measure 

A wrestling veteran has claimed that Tony Khan could release more AEW stars. This comes after he seemingly overpaid stars like Mercedes Mone and Will Ospreay.

Konnan was the latest to give his thoughts on Tony Khan and AEW. In the past year, the promotion has hired several top names to join their ranks. Names like Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, and Mercedes Mone have all joined All Elite Wrestling in the past year.

Certain reports had emerged, that claimed that Tony Khan was paying these wrestlers huge amounts of money in their contracts. Speaking on his Keepin' It 100 podcast, Konnan slammed the AEW President for overpaying wrestlers like Mercedes Mone and Will Ospreay and even stated that the company might have to start releasing stars if these trends continued.

"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:

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Dave Meltzer points out worrying trend in Tony Khan's promotion

The problems with AEW continue to increase with every passing week. The Jacksonville-based promotion has been struggling to fill arenas for their weekly shows for several months. If that wasn't bad enough, last week's episode of Dynamite only saw 500,000 viewers with a 0.16 rating.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer also claimed that this week's match card might not motivate viewers to tune in either. Meltzer noted that the previous week's ratings were indeed devastating and had his doubts about this week's viewership as well.

"It was beyond devastating. It probably will not be the same this week, but that number was scary. I look at this [week's] lineup, and this lineup is okay, but it does nothing for me as far as making me want to watch the show. Will I enjoy the show when I watch it? Yes, I'm sure I will. But does this lineup make me wanna watch the show? No, it doesn't. Whatever 'normal' is, normal is getting smaller, so I don’t know," noted Meltzer. [H/T: WrestleTalk]

It will be interesting to see if AEW Dynamite's rating will increase this week in comparison to last week's abysmal numbers.