Alan Angels Discusses His AEW Departure, When He Told Them He Wasn’t Re-Signing

Alan Angels opens up about his departure from AEW.

Former AEW star, Alan Angels was the special guest on the latest episode of Chris Jericho’s ‘Talk Is Jericho‘ podcast, where the former Dark Order member would delve into his recent departure from All Elite Wrestling:

“I was told that they weren’t going to renew my contract about 45 days before it was up and basically, they just weren’t gonna give me the same deal. They were gonna give me a per appearance deal if I wanted it. I figured that maybe I had reached the limit of where I could get here right now at this run in my career, this point in my career. I came into AEW as virtually a nobody. I’d wrestled maybe three years doing the Southeast.

“I built up a little bit of a following on the internet and stuff like that, but I feel like, there was a perception of me, and I know a lot of people hate this word, but like, I just kind of was the jobber of The Dark Order, the bottom guy on The Dark Order. I feel like when fans build-up that perception of you, I think it’s kind of hard to change that, if that makes sense. I think once that’s decided, once they get that, there’s no changing it unless like, you know, gradually you build up, build up, build up, but like, I feel like in AEW, I feel like that would have taken a really long time if that makes sense.”

When in AEW, Angels went by the ‘5’ moniker during his time with the Dark Order, something he says was Tony Khan’s idea:

“I think that was Tony’s idea. He was really high on the idea of five and dime, which would be me and Vance being a tag team, but as soon as I got signed, Vance tore his bicep. I think that’s kind of why that never really took off. We had a few tag matches and stuff, but I think that was something that Tony was really excited about.”

Angels made his final appearance on AEW programming when he lost to Daniel Garcia in a Pure Rules bout during the 6/11 episode of AEW Dark.

Since leaving All Elite Wrestling, Angels has been busy on the independent circuit and most notably challenged, albeit in a losing effort, IMPACT X-Division Champion, ‘Speedball’, Mike Bailey during the 7/2 edition of IMPACT Wrestling.