Kevin Kelly: I would not treat my worst enemy the way AEW treated me in todays Wrestling news
Kevin Kelly has given his side of the tale on why he left AEW in March. His soured relationship with Ian Riccaboni, a fellow commentator, was a major factor.
Kelly said he had negative feelings towards AEW because of how the situation ended. He added that he “wouldn’t have treated my worst enemy in such a way.”
Kelly made the comment after being asked about his relationship to Riccaboni. The relationship began years ago, when Riccaboni was introduced to Kelly by Bob Evans, a mutual acquaintance. Riccaboni then went on tour to perform in Ring of Honor dark match and Women of Honor matches.
Kelly reached out to Tony Khan years later to ask him to do AEW Collision, after Khan had told him he could not due to his day-job.
Kelly said that Riccaboni had started talking badly about him in a NJPW Discord a few weeks after he called the G1. Riccaboni made accusations he hadn’t heard of, including being a QAnon conspiracist and trying to turn NJPW Fans against him because the situation was public. Kelly had said at the signing that Riccaboni had “put the mouth on him” after he left ROH, which he dismissed.
“The part that bothers [him] so much is that we thought we were friends. If he had called me, we could’ve talked about it,” said he, adding later that he feels horrible that Riccaboni is mad at him for reasons that he is still not sure of.
Kelly claimed that he contacted Riccaboni to discuss the problems, and that Riccaboni had told him that Kelly had done some things over the years to him that he found offensive. Kelly claimed Riccaboni only agreed to speak with Kelly if Kelly agreed not to record the call. Kelly agreed, but laughed at the idea that he would record any conversation. They never spoke.
He said that he doesn’t yet know what the problem is, but Riccaboni did mention one incident in which Kelly made a comment regarding him wearing a Cowboy Hat while sitting next to Jim Ross during Collision’s performance in Calgary, Alberta.
“I was like saying it because guess? You’ll get heat from J.R. when you wear a cowboy cap and sit next to him on the announce desk. “It doesn’t really matter if he approves or not,” he said. “And it was conceived in Calgary, at the Stampede. He’s the one wearing the cowboy hat. Why would you do something like that? Whatever. Listen, Ian was upset by that. “Give me a break,” said he.
The end of his AEW Run
Around that time, things started to go wrong in AEW, where he began in June 2023 when he launched Collision.
Kelly said that in NJPW he was left alone, because he knew exactly what he wanted to do, but in AEW he had a “horde of people in my ear, and I have all this format stuff”, and questioned why Dynamite had to be the exact same show.
“I have no idea if it was split due to CM Punk or the (Young Bucks). This was never mentioned. But it was a different show: Saturday night. Let’s make this different, let’s try some new things,” he said, later stating that they could get rid of Punk as well because he was eventually going to be.
He said he spoke to the AEW about the Riccaboni issue and that he was mentally getting into a bad situation. He said he vented on a voicemail sent to an unnamed VP in HR, whom he had never met or spoken to before. He claimed that he was not informed of his complaints about Riccaboni to HR and that AEW’s disciplinary panel would make a decision. He asked what the decision was, but was not told.
‘Okay what was the final decision?’ “Well, we can’t tell you, because it’s a private matter.’ “Wait, I was actually the victim in this case. I need to know the truth so I can put this behind me. You must understand this. He said, “They’ll get what they deserve.”
He told management that he was in a bad situation because of the way things were going. He claimed that after he voiced his concerns, he was fired by AEW VP Mike Mansury as well as the VP of HR.
Kelly said that his mental health had improved since his firing, but it was not so good during his AEW tenure as the stress was taking a toll on him and his marriage. He said he set up an AEW psychiatrist appointment on a Thursday, but was fired the next day.
Kelly, while he has forgiven Riccaboni for his actions, still feels offended by the public nature of these things. He compared it to Hana Kimura who was a popular Japanese wrestler and committed suicide partly because of negative comments made about her on social networks.
“Because there are consequences when you bring the force of social networking onto someone, falsely accusing them. You shouldn’t, you can’t, and what happened to Hana was far worse than what happened me. I’m not comparing them, but it’s the exact same thing. I did not fit in at AEW. I felt it was a very stressful and different place. It was just so chaotic and overwhelming to me. I was happier in New Japan except for the flights, and the travel,” said he.
Kevin Kelly: I would not treat my worst enemy the way AEW treated me in todays Wrestling news, Chatalong Chatbox, Results will be Hidden inside a spoiler Button so you will not bet spoiled about direct results.
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