2022 was a tricky year for AEW, and while the company seems to be doing better at the moment, you can’t really paper over some of the cracks that started to form in the promotion’s “happy wrestling family” facade.
While 2021 was the year of “who’s going to debut next?”, 2022 was very much the year of “who’s going to jump ship first?”.
While 2023 certainly started a lot stronger for AEW than 2022 did (and a LOT stronger than it did for WWE), you have to wonder if some of that residual bad blood will spill over and cause some of Tony’s favorite action figures to seek out another toy box in the coming year.
At this point the roster has become so bloated that some cutbacks would probably be welcomed, so let’s hope that if anybody does leave this year it’s the people who really want to.
But who could be the first out the door?
Let’s take a look at 9 wrestlers who could leave AEW in 2023:
Brian Cage
Broccoli and boiled chicken enjoyer Brain Cage hasn’t been shy about criticizing his AEW booking (nor has his wife).
Hell, he spent more time doing that in 2022 than he did wrestling.
It’s not super surprising that a guy like Brian Cage wouldn’t get a ton of TV time in a place like AEW; when you’re much of a body guy as Cage is, in a land mostly populated by gymnasts and technical clinicians, there’s isn’t much they can book you to do beyond ‘eat Darby Allin whole’.
It’s a shame too, because while he probably wouldn’t stand out as much in most other promotions, Cage has a really unique look in the context of Cirque De Tonè.
That being said, his contract is up in February and it would be a little weird if he re-signed after spending most of his time being consigned to Dark, Elevation and ROH.
Maybe he can go to WWE, and be with all the other guys who look like what would happen if you put the words “body builder” and “terrible bicep accident” into a cheap AI image generator.
Miro
I almost didn’t actually put Miro on this list because I FORGOT HE WAS STILL IN AEW.
Sorry.
Seriously though, where the hell has this guy been? His most recent match was as one-sixth of a trios bout back in September 2022, and before that it was a qualifying match for a belt nobody could possibly care about that took place in June.
Miro has wrestled on AEW television twice in six months. TWICE. For comparison, Jeff Jarrett has wrestled twice in 2023 alone.
There’s been no real word about why Miro has been absent for so long, but assuming it isn’t for some very serious, legitimate reason that we aren’t privy to for reasons of sensitivity, you have to wonder if he’ll be sticking around for much longer.
If he does leave it’ll be a real shame, but also, that’s kind of what you get when you have a man like Miro in your promotion and say to yourself “hey, we should give the Firm another 15-minute segment”.
Let’s hope that 2023 means more Miro on our TV screens, regardless of which channel he appears on.
Sammy Guevara
It feels kind of weird putting Sammy Guevara on this list.
After all: he’s had a pretty decent run in AEW, becoming a multi-time TNT Champion and a core part of Jericho’s ever-evolving ego-stroking society. He’s featured on TV fairly often. He even gets to work with his wife, who’s having just as stellar a time as he is at the moment.
But here’s the thing: he keeps getting punched in the face.
First it was Eddie Kingston, who “pie-faced” Sammy backstage after the latter made an unsolicited fat joke about him mid-promo.
Then a few weeks later, he and Andrade El Idolo got into a Twitter fight, which quickly became a real fight that saw Andrade suspended to this day.
I don’t know why people keep wanting to punch Sammy in the face. Sammy has, if anything, the least-punchable face I’ve ever seen in my life, full of humility and wisdom.
But he does seem to rub people the wrong way, and it might not take much for him to one day cross a line that sees him leave the company altogether.
But speaking of Andrade…
Andrade El Idolo
Sammy Guevara leaving would be a surprise considering how much the company has backed him as one of it’s ‘Pillars’ since the beginning of the company.
Andrade however is much more likely to leave, they’ve already begun preparing for it, or so it seems.
Rush taking over La Faccion Ingobernable seemed to be a big sign that maybe El Idolo’s days in AEW are numbered.
His wife works for WWE, and one of his biggest supporters is (for now, pal) leading creative in the big corporation up North.
You could easily link him back up with Zelina should she leave Legado, or pair him with Charlotte, or all of the above if you want to tie how many managers he had during his AEW stint.
Thunder Rosa
This one is weird to think about, because Thunder Rosa is still, technically, the uncrowned Women’s Champion in AEW.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her out of the company by year’s end.
Before the AEW backstage stuff got REALLY bad with Brawl Out, there were a lot of rumours swirling about Rosa’s perception backstage in the company.
That, accompanied with her rival’s parter exploding in popularity, leads me to believe she’ll likely be perceived negatively upon her return.
Triple H had interest in her back in 2020 when she chose AEW, who knows if that interest is still there on their end.
Maybe the pay off to the AEW originals vs outsiders angle will be Rosa leaving and some AEW originals invading Stanford.
It won’t? Ah well…
FTR
FTR are such a weird case, because unlike many on this list who had an underwhelming 2023, or a specific inciting incident that would lead us to believe they might want out, Bald and Hair may have had the best year of their careers.
Between winning the AAA, IWGP and ROH Tag Team Championship (and holding them concurrently), having an amazing series of matches with the Briscoes, and Dax Harwood’s unexpected character arc as a single’s wrestler, FTR set the wrestling world on fire last year.
The problem is, very little of that heat was coming from the AEW kitchen.
For some reason, despite having the run of a lifetime, FTR had very few meaningful encounters in AEW itself, causing them to develop friction with the promotion.
They’ve since taken a brief hiatus from the company, but with the team’s contract set to expire some time between March and July, there’s a real question of whether that hiatus could become something more permanent.
Don’t worry too much though; if Dax and Cash do end up leaving AEW for real, they’ve implied that it would only be so they could tour the indies for a year or so, after which the odds are they’ll head right back home.
MJF
Unlike the rest of you marks, I never get worked.
However.
Right before Double Or Nothing 2022, MJF missed a fan signing and allegedly threatened to no-show the following day’s pay-per-view.
While he did eventually show up, it was to quickly job to Wardlow before disappearing from AEW television for several months after cutting a slightly-too-real promo on Tony Khan.
He returned at All Out 2022, and won the company’s top championship shortly afterwards, but not an intrinsic part of his gimmick has become “I hate it here and want to head to WWE instead”.
Wrestling experts call this a worked shoot (or a shot work? A Shwerk?), which more or less means a real incident that has been integrated into kayfabe in order to give a storyline a little more verisimilitude.
While we’re strictly in the land of kayfabe right now, it’s worth remembering that MJF’s current “I hate this place” gimmick began life as real frustration.
With his contract coming up at the end of this year, could fiction trump reality as MJF’s real-life issues with AEW overcome his imagined ones?
CM Punk
I don’t know if you guys heard about this, but CM Punk got into a fight last year. It was a whole thing.
Since Brawl Out – in which Punk called out a bunch of his colleagues, dared them to fight him, and then acted surprised when they took him up on the offer – Punk has been persona non grata in the company.
While there’s still a sliver of a chance he could return at some point in the near future (and his current absence chalked up to injury sustained in the aforementioned show/fight club), it seems likely that 2023 will be the year he bids us all adieu… again.
It’ll be a shame if this (very likely) scenario ends up being the case, since it really feels like Punk left a lot of unfinished business in the company.
It’s been said a million times before, but AEW really is leaving money on the table if they don’t try to make amends here.
That being said, if he does come back, we could see the departure of…
The Elite
Look I know it’s a long shot to say that an executive vice president could leave the company they helped create, there’s no way that would happen, right?
Realistically, probably not with Kenny and the Bucks here, but after Cody last year, can you really say never?
If the issues between Punk and the Elite don’t get resolved, but Punk is brought back to TV, maybe the tension between the two sides could just be too much.
Again, there’s probably a better chance Tony sticks by his EVPs and founders of the company, but who knows.
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