Kevin Kelly says he's planning to sue AEW

[Chris]

Kevin Kelly says he plans to sue AEW

Kelly departed the company in March after having been with AEW since June 2023. He says he was fired after going public on X about his grievances

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Kevin Kelly says he plans to take legal action against AEW.

Kelly departed the company in March after having been with them since June 2023. He says he was fired after going public on X about his grievances with Ian Riccaboni making disparaging comments about him and his frustrations with AEW’s handling of the situation.

On a recent episode of Wise Choices, Eric Bischoff asked Kelly if he plans to sue AEW.

“Yeah, of course,” Kelly responded.

Bischoff then asked Kelly about Tony Khan and the backstage environment in AEW.

“He’s got good people around him that he doesn’t utilize,” Kelly continued. “His vision of what wrestling is, for me, works best on a small scale. People always wonder why did PWG stay small?
Well they knew, I think, they knew if they went big it would go stale fast.”

“(Tony Khan) wants to appeal to a niche audience with his vision of wrestling. But he thinks he can convince the people to watch on a grand scale. The other thing he’s done, he’s made himself the face of the company. He’s the one going now on TV interviews.”

Earlier in the conversation, Kelly spoke about the comments Riccaboni made on a discord server about Kelly promoting the film, “Sound of Freedom” during a broadcast. Kelly says the comments were defamatory and hurt his standing in the industry.

“It’s about child trafficking, how could anybody be against child trafficking?” Kelly said about the film. “Well apparently, it’s a QAnon conspiracy theory movie, Eric, I don’t know if you knew that.”

Bischoff then added, “Ian, if you’re listening to this, you’re fucking weird, and the people who think like you are fucking weird.”

Senior Director for The McCain Institute’s Combatting Human Trafficking Symposium Kristen Abrams has publicly criticized the film. She says it promotes “false narratives” of child trafficking and says it has done “more harm than good.”

“What all moviegoers – especially our nation’s top lawmakers – must know, however, is that the depictions of child trafficking and the rescue tactics celebrated in this film are highly sensationalized, misleading and do more harm than good,” she wrote in an article for USA Today

 

[Chris]

Control Your Narrative died before their play by play guy was free, ya hate to see it

 

[Cwalker]

Doubt he’d ever make it to court.

Court costs and what not will bankrupt Kelly before a judge even hears his case.

 

[Deadd2009]

Does anyone remember if the promotion of the film was his own doing or was it one of those network mandated promotions?

 

[Deezy]

"Child trafficking is bad, but it wasn't as bad as that movie made it out to be".......quite the take from Kristin Abrams.

 

[Chris]

Does anyone remember if the promotion of the film was his own doing or was it one of those network mandated promotions?

It was not something he was told to promote by AEW if that's what you mean. It was his opinion and thoughts and he defended them hard and still is here

 

[Chris]

"Child trafficking is bad, but it wasn't as bad as that movie made it out to be".......quite the take from Kristin Abrams.

It would be if that was her actual quote

 

[Chris]

Doubt he’d ever make it to court.

Court costs and what not will bankrupt Kelly before a judge even hears his case.

Can't even take telling Bsichoff you're planning to sue when he straight up asks seriously tbh

In most states you can fire for political opinions anyway, it's not a protected class and I doubt Florida (assuming this is the state for AEW?) requires a reason bc Texas doesn't

He'd have a better case suing Ian for slander, that was written and Ian never denied it. Don't think he's getting anywhere with wrongful termination

 

[Deezy]

Aren't commentators independent contractors?

 

[Deadd2009]

The only thing he would have for wrongful termination is this:

"retaliation against an employee who has reported improper conduct, i.e. a whistleblower"

Under this he could claim that because of the news Ian reported him, he tried to defend himself and failed, and they fired him for it.

Florida is an at will state too.

 

[Chris]

Yeah at-will employment that's the term I was forgetting. I wasn't sure if Florida was one but I assumed they were and also assumed that's where this case would happen. You're never winning one of those tbh

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Can't even take telling Bsichoff you're planning to sue when he straight up asks seriously tbh

In most states you can fire for political opinions anyway, it's not a protected class and I doubt Florida (assuming this is the state for AEW?) requires a reason bc Texas doesn't

He'd have a better case suing Ian for slander, that was written and Ian never denied it. Don't think he's getting anywhere with wrongful termination

And even then he'd have to prove damages AND that it wasn't true. Apparently extremely hard to win a defamation suit

 

[Canadian Dragon]

But ya he's all talk tbh, he won't do shit

 

[Deadd2009]

Yeah at-will employment that's the term I was forgetting. I wasn't sure if Florida was one but I assumed they were and also assumed that's where this case would happen. You're never winning one of those tbh

Unless he claims he was fired for going to HR about everything. You cant be fired for retaliation under Florida law.

 

[Kross Rhodes]

Doubt he’d ever make it to court.

Court costs and what not will bankrupt Kelly before a judge even hears his case.

Unless there’s a lawyer, who sees a really big payday at the end of the road, and they let him do a percentage of the winnings versus a flat upfront fee.