Lio Rush announced on Saturday that he will be a free agent next month. He noted that his AEW contract will expire on Monday, February 14.
Rush made his AEW debut at Double or Nothing last May, then but he announced in June that he was retiring from professional wrestling due to a separated AC joint injury, to take more time to spend with his family and what he wanted in life.
Last September, Rush returned to AEW after having discussions with Tony Khan. He has been involved in a storyline with Dante Martin and Team Taz, but has been off AEW TV in recent weeks.
Back on New Year’s Eve, Rush took to Twitter and called out Khan to apologize for a tweet he sent out criticizing Big Swole’s wrestling ability after Swole spoke about her departure from the company and the lack of diversity she claimed the company has.
The next day, Rush issued a statement on Twitter saying he had spoken to AEW executives Khan and Megha Parekh, and also said in the same statement he was was proud to work for a boss that tries to make strides in social equality, and was looking forward to working with Khan to keep making steps toward positive change.
PWInsider is reporting there will be additional AEW departures in the next 30 to 60 days beyond Lio Rush. It was also noted AEW will not be announcing the departures but will instead let contracts quietly expire. It was further noted that PWInsider confirmed that Peter Avalon’s deal recently ended.
In a separate report from PWInsider, it was said that the contracts for Marko Stunt, Joey Janela and Brian Cage will also quietly expire.