Report: Update On Kevin Kelly's Status With AEW & NJPW Following Collision Debut

Kevin Kelly joined the All Elite Wrestling commentary team for the inaugural edition of AEW Collision on June 17, with the veteran announcer joining Nigel McGuinness and Jim Ross in the booth for the show.

The team was announced by AEW President Tony Khan ahead of Collision’s debut, but with Kelly serving as New Japan’s lead English language announcer, questions have been raised about how his hiring by AEW will affect his NJPW work. 

When discussing the debut of Collision on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez gave an update on Kelly’s commitments going forward:

“Kevin Kelly is gonna be a regular except for I guess during the G1 [Tournament],” began Alvarez, before Meltzer elaborated on Kelly’s NJPW role:

“He's going to Japan from mid-July to mid-August, so he won't be around then. And then he's gonna get, he's doing at least one more Japan show, but I think it's like a one-shot. So I don't know if that's gonna mean missing a show, but AEW and New Japan, you know, they have good relations, so Tony's not gonna like, do something where, you know, it's like he can't go anymore. But as far as long term, I don't know what the situation is, but, Kevin Kelly is committed from what I understand to New Japan, at least through the end of the year. And he's gonna be calling the tag team tournament, but, from home, which means that he probably can go to all the AEW shows.

“So I think there's probably just the G1 one stuff that where he'd be missing and maybe one other show, maybe even not one other show. Depending on if that show was a weekend show, which it probably is. So it is probably one other show in whatever the big fall show would be, whatever it is. September, October, they're gonna do like a big one, you know, whether it's Autumn Attack or whatever the show is gonna be, that he's committed to going there for that,” said Meltzer.

Kelly has been calling professional wrestling since 1991, most notably working with WWE from 1996 until 2003, and later working as Ring of Honor’s lead commentator from 2010 until 2017. Kelly has been working with New Japan since 2015.

H/T: WrestlingNews.co