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AEW Releases Jimmy Havoc, Bea Priestley, Sadie Gibbs
AEW has released three wrestlers from its roster, according to reports first popping up on Twitter and then confirmed by multiple wrestling media outlets. Jimmy Havoc, Bea Priestley, and Sadie Gibbs are the wrestlers gone from AEW, as first noticed by fans monitoring the company's roster page on their website. Gibbs confirmed her release on Twitter while neither Havoc nor Priestley have commented yet.
Priestley and Gibbs appear to be normal releases, while Havoc was released while on suspension due to allegations made during wrestling's #SpeakingOut movement earlier this year. AEW also revealed last week that they would also stop using many of the jobbers they had been using since the set of tapings they did in Georgia in April. Priestley, who lives in England, hasn't appeared on AEW programming since March due to travel restrictions. Gibbs hasn't wrestled a match in AEW since last October.
A few months ago, AEW President Tony Khan spoke on AEW's Unrestricted podcast about the fact that AEW hadn't released anyone during the pandemic, contrasting AEW with WWE, who cut costs back in April by laying off or furloughing dozens of talent and staff. "We were on a really good run," said Khan. "What was happening in between Revolution and Double or Nothing, this was going to be the best run of business we've ever had, and we've lost millions and millions of dollars in live events. I don't take it lightly, but I can't take it out on the people that work here because it's not their fault. We've really not let anybody go here as a company, and look, I'm gonna be honest, there's gonna come a day where somebody, we're gonna have to, but now is not the time. This is a hard time for everybody. It's a hard time for us, but I have to look at the bigger picture. In the big picture, we're in such good shape. We're the second healthiest wrestling company in the world, and that's a really great place to be. And we haven't let a single person go to do it."
It looks like that day has come, though AEW has a long way to go to match the numbers released by WWE.