After the departure of Stu Grayson, another Dark Order member provided details on their exit from AEW.
Earlier this week, Alan “V” Angels prompted speculation about his AEW contract status when he tweeted that he was “excited for what’s next.”
Now, the Dark Order star has taken to social media once again to confirm his departure from the company, saying that he’s grateful for the time he spent there and that he’s looking forward to what the future has in store for him at the young age of 24.
“As of June 30th my AEW contract has expired
I am nothing but grateful for the two years I spent there. I love AEW. It was/is the best place ever to work. I got to wrestle some of the best wrestlers in the world on a weekly basis, as well as travel to some of the most amazing cities and meet some of the best fans in the world. There are no hard feelings between myself and AEW or Tony Kahn.
I had a great time in AEW and would have loved to have stayed, but I am extremely excited for my future in pro wrestling. I am 24 and I look at this as my wrestling career just beginning. Now I get to show everyone how good I really am. I’m going to grind harder than I ever have before. I’m going to make as many towns as I can, meet as many fans as I can and wrestle as much as I can until I am considered one of the best going today. Thank you all for all the support and kind words and I hope you all will continue to follow my journey.
A’s in the chat!”
Time to grind. pic.twitter.com/2KArNL3Wun
— Alan Angels (@Alan_V_Angels) June 30, 2022
Alan Angels elaborated on his AEW exit in an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that was released early via Fightful Select, saying that he was told a month and a half ago that his contract would not be renewed. The Dark Order star declined to take a per-appearance offer, but made it clear that his decision had nothing to do with any animosity toward Tony Khan or AEW; he simply felt it was in his personal best interest.
“My contract, I was told about a month and a half ago, that they are not going to re-sign me. They did offer me a per-appearance, which I decided not to take, just solely based off what I thought was best for me. I feel there is more room to grow outside of AEW, right now, at this point in my career. It’s nothing against AEW or Tony Khan or any of the higher-ups in the business. It’s a personal thing.
“I feel, me going on the Indies and showing people what I can really do and showing people that I am a good fucking wrestler, I feel that will raise my stock — not saying it’s impossible to do that in AEW, but I guess the perception, how fans perceive Alan Angels, is, I’m the bottom guy in Dark Order and I feel I can change that outside of AEW. It’s possible in AEW, but I feel it would take longer.”
Continuing, Alan Angels notes that he didn’t get to spend a lot of time on the independent wrestling scene, and that he’s excited about what indie wrestling might have in store for him.
“On top of that, I never got to have a great Indie career. I was on the Indies for three years, got lucky, and got scooped up. As a wrestling fan, being an Indie wrestler and doing cool ass Indie shows, that’s a thing I want to do. There are plenty of places to make money in pro wrestling right now. That’s not to say that I won’t be back in AEW, maybe I will, I don’t know, but that’s pretty much it. They offered me something, I felt it was better for me not to. That’s all it was.”
Angels’ Dark Order teammate Stu Grayson’s AEW contract expired on April 30th.