According to Fightful, Miro has requested his release from All Elite Wrestling. His last match with the company was at World’s End in December 2023 against Andrade El Idolo.
The match with Miro was Andrade’s last match with AEW, so that match might go down as the final wrestling match for both men in All Elite Wrestling.
Miro did re-sign with AEW back in 2022, extending his contract to spring of 2026. Between November 2021 and June 2022, Miro did not wrestle in AEW. Even the extension was a surprise.
Miro made his debut on September 9, 2020, revealing himself to be the best man for Kip Sabian’s wedding. At the time I was very excited as I was always a big fan of the former Rusev. I felt WWE didn’t handle him properly, especially after having the last WWE program I enjoyed in his match with John Cena at WrestleMania.
Miro’s first match was September 23, 2020 and his last match December 30, 2023. He has only wrestled 36 matches in that span. While some of that is injury, some of that is also reportedly creative differences, with Miro sitting on the sidelines until he could come to a story that him and AEW President Tony Khan could agree on.
His last story in the company was basically him repeating what he did in WWE with conflicts of his wife CJ Perry managing wrestlers other than him. It had a bizarre misogynist tone and just felt like throwing both into something familiar while Andrade played nice until Tony would let him out of his AEW deal. Now Miro wants out of his deal.
It wasn’t all negative for Miro. Miro started out slow in the company but it was a good thing for AEW to give him time to re-invent himself after the terrible way he was presented in WWE. He needed to be more than just Rusev. He needed to be Miro. He spent time as a relaxed gamer, best man of Kip Sabian and working tag teams with Kip before turning on him. Miro and Kip Sabian never got to have their match. Remember that.
With Miro now solo and focused, he developed a character of being a warrior for God, a God that he is in constant conflict with. Miro would defeat Darby Allin for the TNT Championship and have a great TNT championship run, with his matches always feeling like a big event. A lot of his title matches were against opponents beneath him (Lee Johnson, Brian Pillman Jr., Fuego) but once he faced Eddie Kingston at All Out 2021 it was a very good match.
For a lot of AEW fans, Miro’s TNT Championship run was the last good reign before the TNT Championship lost its way.
It felt like Miro would move to the main event after the TNT Championship run, but after an AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament Final against Bryan Danielson at Full Gear 2021, Miro would go out with injury until June. Miro would find himself once again wrestling for a midcard championship, this time the All-Atlantic Championship, eventually renamed the International Championship. He would lose the four way at Forbidden Door 2022.
Miro would not have another match until All Out 2022 being added to Darby Allin and Sting to face House of Black. This would be his last appearance until the first episode of Collision, where Miro would go back to quick squashes and now be nowhere near any title. He would have a fun match with Powerhouse Hobbs that had the crowd chanting MEAT! when the two meaty men slapped meat against each other. It was the last time it felt like Miro was having fun in the promotion.
The timing of the release request is interesting. It was truly feeling like Miro was going to be the new Lanny Poffo, who had a deal with WCW and just sat on it collecting paycheques for years instead of wrestling. The way Tony Khan has been so lenient with Miro and just allowing him to go home anytime he doesn’t agree with booking it felt like Miro would just ride this to the end of the deal. Why rock the boat?
With rumours of Lucha Bros going to WWE and WWE very interested in Daniel Garcia, it might just be Miro receiving a hint that he could be in line for a push in returning to WWE due to not dealing with Vince McMahon. Of course, he should be looking at the guy he had his last match with in Andrade El Idolo and see how the grass isn’t green at all.
Andrade was literally an injury replacement at WrestleMania for Dragon Lee after making his Royal Rumble debut, after the company had pretty much zero plans for him after his debut. Five months after said debut Andrade was working the Twitter show WWE Speed having a 46 second match with Karl Anderson. He’s the current WWE Speed Champion, beating Ricochet who has since come to AEW. Andrade has had a relatively 50/50 program with Carmelo Hayes before losing to LA Knight on Smackdown recently, which it doesn’t seem like it went too smooth.
This is likely what Miro has looking forward for him. He’s going to get the big moment coming back to WWE, followed by no real plan on what to do with him, followed by 50/50 feuds meant to get younger talent over and only sniffs at midcard championships. It’s not that WWE wants him. It’s that WWE wants to take something away from AEW.
Of course, that doesn’t have to matter to Miro. Maybe he’s just done with AEW and if he is? There’s no point in still paying him. He requested the release, you might as well grant it. Even if there’s potential shenanigans of WWE talking to him while he’s on a deal? At this point it doesn’t matter. Miro’s long absences have had even AEW fans forgetting the good he had done in the company, and all the times he was able to get himself over. That Miro money could go to better use, like marketing their events better.
It’s a shame if World’s End 2023 was the last of Miro. I liked Miro a lot. I really wanted him to get a shot at Hangman Adam Page for the AEW Men’s World Championship, or see him face a guy like Will Ospreay. I liked the chemistry he had with Kip Sabian, and would have been fine seeing those two make a run for the AEW World Tag Championship. I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes, or how healthy he was, so I don’t know who is at fault for only getting 36 matches in AEW out of Miro over 3+ years. Maybe God has just forsaken Miro like he had once told us.
If it was up to me? He’d get his release if he does one last match.
