Former AEW Broadcaster Kevin Kelly Explains Why He's Suing Over Departure

Former AEW broadcaster Kevin Kelly has taken something of a scorched earth approach to his release from Tony Khan's promotion earlier this year, and in a new interview with "Wise Choices," Kelly said he'll be taking legal action against the company.

In the interview, Kelly said he reached out to Khan last year ahead of the Forbidden Door PPV last year. The cross-promotional event is co-sponsored by New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where Kelly worked as an English language commentator, but the conversation led to Khan bringing up "AEW Collision," the new program that AEW launched in 2023.

"He wanted me to be the announcer on 'Collision,'" Kelly remembered. "I was already kinda getting weary of [NJPW commentary] ... it was financially good. Schedule-wise, it was great."

Things were copacetic for a few weeks, according to Kelly. Then he got into a personal altercation with former ROH commentary partner Ian Riccaboni, which started when Kelly returned home from calling the G1 Climax tournament to find Riccaboni "hammering" him on NJPW's Discord server, specifically taking exception to Kelly's promotion of the controversial film "Sound of Freedom." Kelly was soon labeled a conspiracy theorist on X (formerly known as Twitter) and took to the app's direct messenger to hash things out with Riccaboni, to no avail. Kelly said he called AEW's Human Resources department to find out if Riccaboni's accusations were actionable or not, and was told the altercation was indeed a matter for HR to handle.

While Kelly was waiting for HR to follow up, however, he was replaced as "Collision's" play-by-play commentator by Tony Schiavone; he was also left off commentary on AEW PPV events. Kelly said he was eventually told by an HR representative that the matter had been handled privately, which didn't satisfy Kelly, who stressed he didn't want to see Riccaboni fired.

"I just wanted an apology and to move on," Kelly said.

Kelly said he was assured by Executive Producer Michael Mansury that nothing was wrong in terms of Kelly's standing in the company, but when Kelly was left off of Sting's retirement weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, he unleashed an angry tirade on both the HR representative and on social media. 

"I don't remember what I said, but I'm sure it was stiff," Kelly said, assuring host Eric Bischoff that he was sober at the time. Infuriated by a series of comments on an AEW video about his supposed right-wing beliefs, Kelly said he tried to take advantage of in-house psychiatric help for his mental health, only to be fired from the company, instead.

"I got let go for the things I was saying publicly about the company on social media and the voice message I had left for the nice HR lady," he said. At that point, Bischoff asked Kelly if he was going to sue AEW.

"Yeah, of course," Kelly said. "Have to."