Report: AEW fires Kevin Kelly over Twitter/X outburst

Yesterday (Mar. 7), fans noticed that Kevin Kelly was no longer listed on the AEW roster page. Kelly was then not in his usual spot at the Collision commentary desk when that show was taped last night in Duluth, Georgia. Now, PWTorch is reporting that the veteran announcer has been fired by AEW.

Kelly’s posts on Twitter/X before last Sunday’s Revolution PPV are the reason for the firing, at least according to the Torch’s AEW sources. Over the course of several tweets, Kelly voiced his frustration about how he’s been used since he was hired as Collision’s play-by-play voice last summer, and specifically accused Ring of Honor announcer Ian Riccaboni of libeling him and sabotaging his career.

In posts on made on a Discord server last August, Riccaboni referred to times in the past where he believes Kelly tried to bury him publicly, and criticized his promotion of “QAnon movies” in reference to the popular and controversial film Sound of Freedom. Per Wrestling Observer, “Riccaboni admitted that the Discord posts were made by him but said he didn’t know how Discord worked. Riccaboni said he should have read up on what was public and what was private, but he had no regrets about s.”

Kelly started in the wrestling business in the 1990s. He was with WWE for almost eight years prior to his 2003 release, after which he was mostly out of wrestling until returning to work for ROH in 2010. That and his work as New Japan’s English-language voice for most of the past decade led to his being hired by AEW. Kelly’s time there was rocky even before his issues with Riccaboni came to light; he was replaced by Tony Schiavone as Collision’s lead voice in October amidst criticism of Kelly’s work on the show.