News

AEW Wrestler Officially Departs Company

By John Canton • Published Feb 28, 2026 08:20 EST
AEW logo over blurred Kazarian and Daniels

An AEW wrestler has officially left the company and been removed from the roster page as well.

It appears as if Danhausen’s “very evil” run in AEW is officially over.

PWInsider reports that Danhausen’s AEW contract has expired. While Danhausen still appeared on the AEW roster page on the company website yesterday, he is no longer there as of February 28th.

After a successful run as a unique independent wrestler who was popular with fans, Danhausen became All Elite in January 2022. However, the man who is known for saying things are “very evil” was sparingly used while in AEW.

During Danhausen’s four years under contract with AEW, he rarely wrestled and seemed to have no consistent role. Danhausen appeared at an ROH Final Battle in 2024, but was kept on the sidelines in 2025. AEW has benched many wrestlers over the years, including Britt Baker, who hasn’t been seen in over a year.

Danhausen’s AEW deal was believed to end in July 2025, but AEW added injury time from his 2023 torn pectoral injury. Because of that injury, Danhausen’s All Elite deal extended into early 2026, even though he reportedly asked the company to let the contract expire so that he could move on.

WWE May Debut Former AEW Wrestler Danhausen At Elimination Chamber

It was reported in early January that WWE was interested in Danhausen when he became a free agent.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter wrote this week about how Danhausen may not seem like a typical WWE/Paul “Triple H” Levesque hire, but the company did have an interest in him.

“He’s absolutely not the kind of wrestler that Paul Levesque would want as a top star. But he can be a comedy character, could get over as a cult figure early and would likely sell a lot of merchandise. I expected discussion regarding him and that in the end they’d give him a try.”

A mystery crate recently debuted on WWE television, and it has been shown on Raw and SmackDown throughout the month of February. It says on the outside of the crate that it should not be opened until February 28th, which is the date of the WWE Elimination Chamber PLE. Many people expect Danhausen to be in the crate, but there’s also speculation that it could be Chris Jericho or someone else.

Chris Jericho remains on the AEW roster page as of today, February 28th, the date of the WWE Elimination Chamber PLE.

For his part, Danhausen didn’t stay silent on social media. In multiple posts on X/Twitter on February 27th, Danhausen posted an image of the Genie from the 1992 film Aladdin, specifically a scene in which the character is freed at the end of the movie. He also posted the song “Freedom Slam” by the band Freedom. That has led to speculation that Danhausen is saying he is “free” from All Elite Wrestling.