Details Regarding AEW Releasing Ricky Starks, Miro & Malakai Black, When They Are Free
The trio of Ricky Starks, Miro, and Malakai Black are officially gone from AEW and details have emerged about what happened with all three men.
It has been a big day for three former AEW wrestlers who have been released from their deals. It has been reported that Ricky Starks, Miro, and Malakai Black are all gone from the company.
All three men are former champions in AEW with Starks having a run as a Tag Team Champion with Big Bill, Miro was a dominant TNT Champion and Black was a Trios Tag Team Champion with his House of Black group.
Fightful Select has confirmed the news that all three men are no longer under contract to AEW.
Malakai Black’s original deal with AEW would have seen him stay signed to the company until 2027, which is based on what Tony Khan said in an interview several years ago. However, Black was able to get out of the deal and it was reported in January that Black was no longer going to be used by AEW.
Black is married to WWE’s Zelina Vega, who recently was moved from Raw to the SmackDown brand. It’s expected that Black will join his wife in WWE, so Black could show up on SmackDown soon. Before signing with AEW in July 2021, he was known as WWE’s Aleister Black from 2016 until his release in June 2021.
Miro hasn’t competed in an AEW match since the Worlds End PPV in December 2023. Miro asked for his release from the company in the fall of 2024 and it has been confirmed that the release request has been granted.
It was noted by Fightful that AEW discussed potential creative ideas with Miro throughout 2024, but he was not used. Miro has been healthy and cleared for “quite some time” according to Fightful.
Miro was signed by Tony Khan’s promotion in September 2020 and he signed an extension in early 2022 that would have kept him in AEW until 2026, but instead, he is gone from the company one year earlier than expected.
Before his AEW career, Miro was known as WWE’s Rusev for nearly a decade where he had memorable rivalries in the company with the likes of John Cena and Roman Reigns. He also held the US Title and was very popular while doing a “Rusev Day” gimmick that the fans loved.
Ricky Starks Told AEW To Not Pick Up Contract Option And They Still Did It
The absence of Ricky Starks from AEW television has been a big story for most of the last year because Tony Khan didn’t use Starks on his television shows since the March 30, 2024 episode of AEW Collision.
Fightful reports that in late 2023, Stark asked AEW to not pick up his contract option that was coming due in the spring of 2024, but AEW chose to do it. They went on to not use Starks at all after they picked up his contract. Starks was open to working for AEW, but the company didn’t use him. Before his release, Starks was blocked from working on some GCW shows. His contract with AEW was going to expire within a few months this spring.
It was reported in August 2024 that Ricky Starks is expected to go to WWE whenever he is free. Starks is good friends with Cody Rhodes and other people in WWE. Starks even went backstage with Rhodes at the 2023 Royal Rumble, which led people to wonder if Starks had a future in WWE.
The Fightful report concluded by noting that Ricky Starks, Miro, and Malakai Black are all free to go wherever they want. They do have non-compete clauses as part of their releases. In WWE, superstars often have a 90-day non-compete clause, but it doesn’t appear to be the case with these three men leaving AEW.