I’ve written about the bloated All Elite Wrestling roster on several occasions, and a few weeks ago, discussed the positives and the negatives of the situation. Obviously, from a payroll perspective, it’s silly to continue to send a check every week to talent that are either paid to stay home or hang out in catering. For the talent, there are two sides to the coin, as you can’t blame anyone for taking the money on the table, especially when it’s the security of a national contract to make a full-time living in the industry. In some scenarios, getting paid by Tony Khan, even if it is just to stay home or work an occasional ROH match that next to nobody actual watches, might be the best option for some of the performers. That’s not a knock on them as real-life people that are trying to do the best they can, but rather to point out that not everyone is capable of reaching a level of making a full-time living in the business. For example, Serpentico is probably a great guy, but would the fans riot (or notice) if he wasn’t on the roster? Do Ross and Marshall Von Erich get paid full-time or only when AEW runs in Texas?
I would never blame anyone for taking the money that’s offered, if they can make that cash, God bless them. However, the somewhat harsh reality might be that landing a job to stay under the radar was probably the best they could’ve hoped for anyway, which isn’t to say they aren’t talented, but rather that not everyone is at a major league level. For some wrestlers on the AEW roster, the best move for them is to take the cash for as long as possible and hope nobody notices otherwise. Are they still sending Jake Roberts a check?
The other side of the coin for talent is that while they are getting paid that full-time living on a contract from a billionaire, they might unintentionally be trading the short end money for not only a bigger spot in the business, but bigger cash overall in the long run. It’s disappointing, but there are several talents on the AEW roster right now that are more or less spending some of the prime years of their individual careers lost in the shuffle. Some of those wrestlers could probably be used in a better spot elsewhere, with Mike Santana and Frankie Kazarian as two main examples of performers that flourished outside of AEW instead of floundering in the organization.
This week, it was reported that there were three contracts that expired, and AEW chose not to renew the deals. It’s actually a very nice gesture that Tony Khan often allows the contracts to expire rather than cut talent since it allows the wrestlers to get paid the full amount of their deals. Again, it goes against business sense, but we’ve often seen that money is no object for Khan.
Matt Taven, Mercedes Martinez, and Alex Abrahantes were among the names that will exit the company. In some ways, each performer could have a different path ahead of them, representing some of the shifting dynamics among the pro wrestling landscape.
Taven is a former Ring Of Honor world champion, although his run was rather undistinguished, as it was around the time that the core group of The Elite, the stable that provided the promotion with a surge in popularity, had already departed to launch AEW. Sure, Taven won the ROH belt in Madison Square Garden, but he was put in a no-win situation, as the sell out crowd bought tickets months in advance based on the momentum built around The Elite stable that had left the company by the time the show actually took place. That’s a tough spot for a new champion, as Taven was the top guy for a company that had just lost significant depth to the roster, almost somewhat of a consolation prize in terms of perception. I could be wrong, but I’ve always seen Taven as a solid in-ring worker that could execute the maneuvers, but was rather bland as far as an overall presentation. He’s a guy that’s worth having on the roster to plug in where you need him, but he’s not going to move the needle at the top of the card. In some respects, his tenure as ROH champion was proof of that. He only worked half a dozen matches for the ROH brand last year and was more or less out of sight, out of mind in terms of his status within the industry.
That’s where it’s a difficult decision, is the the paycheck from Tony worth the possible decline of your stock as a performer in the business? And, it might be, but it’s undoubtedly a potential downside of staying under the AEW umbrella. I’d say that Taven’s value as a performer declined during his AEW tenure. The question is simple, what has he done in the past three and a half years in the company? What memorable match, promo, or storyline did he have? The fact that he wasn’t really given much of an opportunity to do so is irrelevant, we’re talking about his value before compared to his value after working for AEW. Maybe it would’ve been a wise decision for him to request a release last year? At the same time, it’s very difficult to make that decision since it would be giving up a steady paycheck to try to test the waters in a crowded pro wrestling market.
At 40, Taven is definitely in the latter stages of his career, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t or won’t work for one of the national leagues going forward. In fact, I’d say that Taven should take the Santana approach and look for a spot in TNA. There’s opportunity there with the promotion’s AMC debut next week, and there could be a spot open for him with some talents going to NXT. As I said, Taven is a very capable performer so he definitely has something to offer either with TNA or maybe a return to New Japan as a solid mid-card talent. That’s not meant as a criticism, either. Every card needs to be built and a solid mid card is part of the overall package. Guys like D’Lo Brown and Al Snow were tremendous in their roles and made careers as an entertaining part of the mid card.
Mercedes Martinez is such a solid veteran and it’s unfortunate that she just wasn’t at the right place at the right time to truly get a chance to showcase her skills. As a 25-year pro, she started too early to be a part of the female revolution of the WWE where women had the chance to work as serious athletes, but by the time there were more opportunities for female talent, there was a slew of younger athletes that had already been recruited to the Performance Center. Similar to Taven, her tenure in AEW was so far under the radar that it was easy to forget that she had a job. She hadn’t worked an ROH match since 2024 and only had a dozen matches on the indys last year. She posted online that this year will be her last year as a full-time wrestler, I really think she’d be an almost obvious choice for a player-coach type of role in either NXT or TNA. Furthermore, after she hangs up her boots, Martinez would be a valuable addition to the Performance Center coaching staff in a similar fashion to Sara Del Rey, another female competitor that didn’t get full credit for her in-ring career, but has worked for years in the WWE developmental system.
It might seem like a retread, but Alex Abrahantes was too good at his job not to be paired with Penta again so hopefully, he can land a similar role in WWE. I was somewhat surprised that Abrahantes wasn’t kept on the roster, if for no other reason than he works on the Spanish announce team, and AEW recently secured a deal for programming to be distributed in Mexico through the HBO Max streaming platform. The bottom line is, Abrahantes did well at his job, especially in the manager role so he should have some options in the future.
It goes without saying that AEW should cut down on the roster so situations like this have to happen to have a better structure with the presentation of the product, but it’s also an example of the upside of the exits since there’s an argument to be made for each of these performers that they have the chance to have a better run elsewhere.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
