"Tony Khan, Stuttering Billionaire's Son, Fired Me After I Had A Mental Breakdown" - Kevin Kelly

Ex-AEW announcer Kevin Kelly has launched an online attack on his former boss, Tony Khan, calling the All Elite Wrestling founder "the stuttering son of a billionaire."

Kelly did so in response to a Twitter user who had commented on AEW "screwing [Kelly] over." Insulting Khan in his quote-tweet, Kelly also claimed that Khan was feeding him lines on commentary, then waiting until he'd had a mental breakdown to fire him:

All I wanted to do was call wrestling. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd have to listen to a stuttering son of a billionaire feeding me lines and then correcting himself and telling me I was doing great. They waited until I had a mental breakdown to fire me. https://t.co/zCwoXXNzM4— Kevin Kelly (@realkevinkelly) January 14, 2025

AEW hired Kelly, 57, in June 2023, doing so after his return to wrestling prominence as a member of NJPW's English broadcasting team. Initially sitting alongside Nigel McGuinness and Jim Ross in the Collision announce booth, Kelly was fired in March 2024 after a spat with Ring of Honor commentator Ian Riccaboni.

Kevin's public comments accusing Riccaboni of libellous behaviour likely led to him being let go:

When you go out of your way to intentionally mischaracterize my raising awareness of the global horrors of child trafficking to a fringe conspiracy theory that everyone knows is bullshit in order to hurt my career and standing in the industry, that at the very least is libelous— Kevin Kelly (@realkevinkelly) March 2, 2024

At the time of Kelly's AEW firing, PWTorch reported that Khan did not see Kelly as a good fit for Collision's play-by-play position. This led to AEW replacing Kevin with Tony Schiavone in the role.

Why Kevin Kelly Is Suing AEW

Kevin Kelly and former ROH talents Brandon and Brent Tate (FKA The Boys) filed a lawsuit against AEW on 30 August 2024. The trio sought to void the arbitration clauses in their AEW contracts, while also looking to certify a class-action lawsuit against AEW for misclassifying wrestlers as independent contractors, not employees.

Said one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Stephen P. New, in an email to Sports Illustrated's The Takedown:

"I am proud to represent Kevin Kelly and the Tate Twins in this lawsuit. I am looking forward to them having their day in Court and the truth coming out about their situations. Finally, I hope this lawsuit is the genesis of a change in the pro wrestling industry wherein we can make pro wrestlers the employees they are instead of “independent contractors” which they are not and never have been."

When asked, an AEW spokesperson told SI that the company "does not comment on pending litigation."

In October, representatives of AEW, Riccaboni, and Khan filed a motion to dismiss the claims and move the case to arbitration as well as move the case to Florida and away from Pennsylvania, where it had been filed. In November, the Florida move was granted by judge Mia R. Perez, who ruled:

“The forum selection clauses are standard within the professional wrestling industry, and the contracts were primarily negotiated, executed, and administered from Jacksonville, Florida,” Perez wrote in her order. “Thus, enforcement in Florida would not be so seriously inconvenient as to be unreasonable. Considering the convenience of the parties and the interest of justice, the balance favors transfer to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.”

2 January 2025 filed a motion requesting all proceedings be paused until Florida courts had decided on whether or not the arbitration clause should be enforced. This is pending a decision.