AEW Fires Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly has been fired by All Elite Wrestling, according to a report from Wade Keller of PWTorch.

Kelly's firing comes after he took to X/Twitter during the weekend of AEW Revolution, claiming amongst other things that Ring of Honor lead announcer Ian Riccaboni ‘libelled him’ due to Kelly’s promotion of an anti-child trafficking movie widely believed to be linked to conspiracy theorist movement Q-Anon. PWTorch noted Kelly's firing was directly linked to his tweets over the weekend.

Kelly had been brought into the company to serve as the play-by-play announcer on Collision upon the show’s creation in 2023, but his appearances as of late have been inconsistent to say the least. Kelly had already been demoted from his spot as the play-by-play announcer on Collision, being replaced by Tony Schiavone. He still served as an announcer on Collision in a colour role.

Kelly's performances were reportedly considered subpar within AEW, including by Tony Khan. AEW held a pre-record for the March 9 edition of Collision on March 7, with Kelly absent from the taping. AEW instead ran a two-man booth for the show, with Tony Schiavone and Nigel McGuinness calling the action per a report from PWInsider.

It was revealed on Thursday night that Kelly’s profile had been removed from the roster section of the AEW website.

Prior to joining AEW, Kelly handled English language commentary duties for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and also worked for WWE from 1996 until 2003, as well as stints with ROH and Major League Wrestling.