AEW President Tony Khan is really good at signing wrestlers to deals. He’s not so good at finding things to do for all of the talents that he treats as action figures.
“It’s like for two years straight I’d call every week and ask if you got anything for me? You signed, right? You still getting paid, right? I want to wrestle,” AEW talent Willie Mack wrote on his socials this week.
Mack has been featured sparingly in Ring of Honor – his most recent match there was in December, in a tag squash loss to the lower-midcard team of Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta.
His last AEW match was on a March 2025 “Collision,” in a squash loss to Yuta.
Mack has been a regular with Juggalo Championship Wrestling, which is somehow still around, good for them, but still.
This is par for the course for Khan, who, to borrow from the “Seinfeld” bit about reservations, anybody can sign a bunch of wrestlers, but.
Chris Jericho has been on the shelf for the past year, after dropping the ROH title to Bandido last April.
Word is, again, that Jericho could be set for a return, perhaps as soon as tonight, with “Dynamite” set to broadcast from Winnipeg, Jericho’s hometown.
We could also be getting a return tonight from Mercedes Mone, who has been working the indies in the States and globally since losing the TBS belt to Willow Nightingale on the Dec. 31 “Dynamite.”
Former AEW women’s world champ Britt Baker last appeared in AEW in November 2024, defeating Penelope Ford in a match on “Dynamite.”
Her most recent public comment on her status came in a post on her socials responding to a fan asking what was going on.
“Not up to me,” was her comment.
The likes of Jericho, himself a former AEW champ, along with Mone and Baker, are a couple or more notches above the status of Willie Mack, and also Mercedes Martinez, who went public this week with her own frustrations with being paid not to work.
Martinez said in a recent interview that her inactivity led her to decide to retire, because the lack of work led her to question her worth.
“I think it happened last year when being contracted, especially with AEW and not being utilized to my full potential, kind of brought me into that weird space headspace of, like, am I really, like, can I still hang with the females? Can I still hang with the top tier? Do I still have a lot to prove? Do I have anything to prove left?” Martinez said.
“I’m blessed for the opportunity that Tony gave me for the last four years, but it felt like the last year, year and a half, almost two years, I kind of just sat on the shelf not doing anything for the company. And it kind of messes with your mind a lot. It kind of just makes you think, am I worth it. Does he really, you know, want to utilize my talent and my expertise?” Martinez said.
Other notables on the AEW MIA list
- Former AEW tag champs The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster): Bowens has three AEW TV appearances this year; Caster: zero. Of note: Bowens and Caster worked an indy match as The Acclaimed on March 21 in New York.
- Anna Jay, who last appeared on a “Collision” show in November in a tag match with partner Tay Melo in a loss to Marina Shafir and Megan Bayne.
- Kamille, off having a role in a feature film (“Queen of the Ring”) and the reboot of “American Gladiators,” last worked an AEW match in October 2024, losing a singles bout to Kris Statlander on “Dynamite.”
- Keith Lee isn’t just MIA; he’s on the back of milk cartons. His last match was in December 2023. Word on Lee is that he is medically cleared, and just waiting for a phone call, like the rest on this list.
Injury list
- Former WWE champ Bobby Lashley last worked as one of the participants in a Casino Gauntlet match at the November “Full Gear” pay-per-view, and has been out since with an undisclosed injury. It appears that Lashley will be returning to TV soon, alongside Hurt Syndicate stablemates Shelton Benjamin and MVP.
- Former AEW champ Samoa Joe is recovering from a concussion suffered in January. His last match was the Jan. 21 “Dynamite,” in a win over “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Status: uncertain.
- Former IWGP champ “Switchblade” Jay White last worked in a March 2025 match with Kevin Knight on “Collision.” I’m not seeing anything authoritative on his status.
- Hook was pulled from the Blackjack Battle Royal at AEW “Revolution” last month due to an undisclosed medical issue. Status: uncertain.
- Buddy Matthews last worked in AEW in February 2025, in a loss to Kazuchika Okada on “Grand Slam Australia.” He suffered an ankle injury in the match, and his status is still uncertain at this writing.
- Former IWGP champ Kota Ibushi suffered a gruesome leg injury in a “Collision” match with Josh Alexander in October. He is out indefinitely.
- Speaking of Josh Alexander, the former TNA champ was injured in a six-man match on “Collision” last month, and word literally today is that he underwent successful knee surgery, but the timetable for his return is not known.
- Former TNA champ Brian Cage, who last worked in AEW in March 2025, underwent multiple surgeries to repair a knee injured in an indy match with Chris Masters, but is reportedly medically cleared and awaiting directions.
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Chris Graham
