Tony Khan Unmoved By Fired Star’s Statement
Tony Khan remains unmoved after two fired stars hit back at his claims that they had missed work on multiple occasions despite being booked.
On April 1st several AEW and ROH talents were released from their contracts. In the past, Tony Khan has resisted releasing talents en-mass, instead preferring to allow their contract to expire. However, that policy has seemingly changed with the likes of Anthony Henry, Stu Grayson, and Dasha leaving the company.
Among the releases were The Boys who regularly appear alongside Dalton Castle. Bret and Brandon Tate sometimes known as The Tate Twins have been part of Castle’s act on and off for almost a decade before being released.
The releases caught many fans by surprise given their close association with Castle, but Tony Khan has now given more details on why they were let go. Speaking on a media call ahead of ROH Supercard of Honor, Khan said that the duo failed to show up for work on multiple occasions, meaning he had to make the tough call to let them go.
The Boys hit back at Tony Khan’s allegations with a lengthy statement and screenshots of text messages with AEW management that they say explain the confusion surrounding travel arrangements for shows. But Tony Khan seems to be unmoved.
Tony Khan Disagrees With The Boys
At the ROH Supercard of Honor media scrum, Tony Khan was asked about the situation regarding The Boys and gave his own take on things noting he’s not moved by what he’s heard:
I have not seen their exact statement. After the show [Supercard] I heard a little bit of this as I was coming back. I stand by what I said, and also I’ve only owned ROH for two years.
There’s a long history of ROH. It was my call to bring them back. I liked their presentation with Dalton [Castle] and I like them both personally. I’ve had a lot of good experiences with them, and I would be open to working with them again in the future.
But there have been times when they came and have done great things for us. We did the House Rules tour… in the south and I loved having them. And they’ve been to a lot of the Saturdays, but there have been some times from my era of ROH, and I’ve been told from the company I inherited, other times in the past, and I’m just going off my experiences.
As for that, I did talk about that and confirm. I think there’s two sides to that story, but I appreciate you asking about it. I know yesterday they said ‘stay tuned,’ so I stayed tuned, and then I heard, and I am not moved but thank you.
After talking more generally about the releases, Khan then worked his way back onto the situation with The Boys:
And like I said, even with The Boys, I disagree with the point on travel and that in the history of ROH and working with us that there hadn’t been a couple times where they didn’t make it and made me change stuff, but on the other hand I really like both of them.
And whether we agree or not about that point of contention, I think it’s regardless, I think they were great. They were a great part of Dalton’s act. I like both the Tates. I like everybody we released in this last batch recently and I’m wishing nothing but the best for any of them.
One star released by Tony Khan is on their way back to the roster already but whether any of the rest of the stars let go ever return to AEW or ROH remains to be seen.