Kevin Kelly Discusses How Working For AEW Affected His Mental Health

Former AEW Collision play-by-play announcer Kevin Kelly was released by AEW in March, after joining the AEW commentary desk in 2023. Since then, Kelly has been vocal about his departure from AEW, including how working with the company affected his mental health. 

While speaking with "K & S WrestleFest," Kelly revealed how his mental health deteriorated when he first began working with AEW, ultimately affecting both his personal and family life, but has since gotten the help he needed. 

"My mental health was not good from when this began and it was taking a toll on my marriage, on my family, on me personally, physically, mentally, and I mean it's really nobody's business but my mental health was not good. It's better now, thank god, and because I've gotten, you know, I've gotten some help, I've gotten fixed well, working on being fixed as we all can be." 

Kelly also mentioned that he sought help from the on-site psychiatrist in AEW, with whom he had a scheduled appointment with, but was released from the company just a day before meeting him. 

Kevin Kelly continued by voicing his displeasure of AEW commentator Ian Riccaboni, who he felt ruined his reputation within the company by slandering him on social media, adding to the mental health issues he was struggling with. He also shared that he felt the environment in AEW was "very stressful" and that he was much happier working in NJPW. 

"You cannot do something like that, it happened to a much greater extent. I'm not comparing myself to it at all, but to Hana Kimura, okay, because when you bring down the force of social media onto a person wrongly accusing someone, there are consequences. You can't do that, you shouldn't do that, and I mean what happened to Hana, of course, was much worse than what happened with me. I was not a fit for AEW, I just felt like it was a very different kind of place and very stressful, so many people, so many just like ... there was so much chaos and it just really stressed me out a lot, I was much happier in New Japan."

The last episode of "AEW Collision" that Kelly participated in was the March 2 edition where he shared the desk with Tony Schiavone and Nigel McGuinness.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "K & S WrestleFest" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.