Since the launch of All Elite Wrestling in 2019 fans have seen a number of former WWE stars join the company, and originally Brian Kendrick was supposed to make his debut with AEW back in February. It was announced that Kendrick would be facing Jon Moxley on Dynamite, but he was pulled from the show after a past video containing some controversial comments resurfaced.
Recently Kendrick participated in a virtual signing with K&S WrestleFest, and he explained exactly how everything went down ahead of his canceled appearance on Dynamite.
“Show up to Chicago, I’m in my wrestling gear. Few hours from going out there and performing, I get a call from their lawyer who texted me earlier in the day, AEW’s lawyer. She asked if there was a time to talk. I had saw my texts, I said, ‘Yeah, where do you need me?’ Not thinking she wasn’t in the building. Few hours later, I go to call my wife because I’m getting ready to do this match, I get a call from the lawyer and she says, ‘Calm down, calm down.’ I said, ‘Oh boy, I sure am nervous right now’ and she goes, ‘Is it true?’ I said, ‘Is what true?’ And she goes, ‘Well there’s this video out there’ and I said, ‘I don’t know what video.’ Meanwhile, this has already been made the wrestling scoops and she says, ‘Oh, there’s some pretty salacious stuff about the Holocaust, about Sandy Hook’ and I go, ‘Oh! M’fer. I know exactly what you’re talking about. It was from a conspiracy video I did for Highspots about ten years ago, it was 2013’ and that was it. She goes, ‘I think we’re gonna have to pull you from the show.’ I said, ‘I understand.’
“I text Bryan Danielson, I said, ‘Hey buddy, I’m sorry for the embarrassment,’ call my wife and she goes, ‘Is it bad?’ I go, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty bad.’ ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘I think I’m getting thrown out of the building.’ Then I get a call from Sonjay Dutt, go in to meet him and Bryan Danielson, Tony Khan, my first time actually meeting Tony. We only talked on the phone. He says, ‘I apologise. I don’t think this would have happened if you wouldn’t have quit your job and came here, but this is what we’re dealing with right now so I think it’s for the best that if you grab your gear and leave.’ I said, ‘I understand’ and that was it. I grabbed my gear — well I went from there, from my gear to the dressing room, I grabbed my bag, snuck off into a public restroom, got dressed and then just started walking as far out as I could out in the snow from the building in Chicago and caught myself an Uber and I’ve been in a daze ever since.”
Even though Kendrick never actually appeared on AEW programming he noted that he was officially released from his deal with the company on May 1st.
“I had a few friends who wanted some explanation and they seemed to be satisfied with it, but as far as the business goes, Tony [Khan] doesn’t know me from nothing. He just knows he has a headache walking in, it’s a problem I have to deal with and it’s easier not to use him, so that’s the route they chose. I officially got released on May 1st so it was about three months in limbo, being quasi-employed, getting paid on one of my two contracts there until they said, ‘It’s nothing we can do with you’ and that was it so now I’m figuring my life out.”
Stay tuned for more updates on Brian Kendrick’s status as they become available.
H/T POST Wrestling
