On Monday, an eagle-eyed fan on social media spotted that Stu Grayson of The Dark Order was no longer listed on AEW’s roster page on their website. Typically this will mean the talent is no longer with the company, as even wrestlers on contracted pay-as-you-wrestle deals like Peter Avalon are listed. However, with no official announcement or comment from Grayson, some speculated it maybe had been an error. Now though, Dave Meltzer has shared what he knows about the situation on Wrestling Observer Radio, revealing that Grayson and AEW failed to agree on a new deal. Although he’d add he wasn’t aware if negotiations were continuing.

33-year-old Grayson was one of AEW’s original signings and debuted for the promotion at Double or Nothing event in 2019 alongside longtime tag partner Evil Uno. After that, he’d wrestle 79 times for the company, mainly in tag and multi-man matches on AEW Dark and AEW Dark: Elevation. What the future now holds for him remains to be seen, although having been a part of AEW for three years, he should ensure he isn’t short of independent show bookings in his home country of Canada.

The latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the Vice TV series Dark Side of the Ring was not being renewed for a fourth season. This obviously disappointed plenty of fans, as the controversial show had built a following among die-hard wrestling fans. Now though, Vice has tweeted out dispelling this report, saying they are as committed as ever to the Dark Side franchise and that the show producers Evan Husney and Jason Eisener are making new content.

It did seem strange that Vice would end the series when they had already made two spinoff shows, Dark Side of Football and Dark Side of the 90s, based on its success. Additionally, while down from season 1, the ratings are still often double, if not triple, the channel’s average. With the season 2 finale, which covered Owen’s Hart death, being the highest-rated program in the channel’s history at the time.

Despite having signed a new contract with WWE less than a year ago, it has been reported by Fightful Select that Roderick Strong has repeatedly been requesting his WWE release. Precisely why he wants out of WWE wasn’t revealed. Still, considering his wife and all three of his Undisputed Era stablemates are now with AEW, he is likely hoping to join them. This would also explain why WWE is declining the requests even though they constantly release talents to save money and have hardly used Strong recently.

38-year-old Strong made his name wrestling for ROH and TNA before signing with WWE in 2016. His biggest success came when he joined Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O’Reilly in The Undisputed Era, winning the NXT North American Championship and NXT Tag Team Champions twice. However, the highly successful faction would disband, and he formed the Diamond Mine stable along with Tyler Rust, Malcolm Bivens, and Hachiman. Since then, though, the group has gone through multiple changes. Recently Strong would wrestle dark matches before SmackDown facing Tommaso Ciampa twice and LA Knight but has not yet received his main roster callup. Instead, he traveled to England to wrestle Ilja Dragunov for NXT UK.

Over the weekend, the AEW contracts of Joey Janela, Jack Evans, and Marko Stunt all expired, with the trio all being pulled from the promotions roster page. However, eagle-eyed Twitter user @PatrickEireWres has noted that another wrestler was also removed, with Stu Grayson of The Dark Order no longer being listed. It should be noted that it isn’t officially confirmed that he is no longer with the company as of writing. However, the fact that he was not at Sunday’s AEW Dark tapings while other faction members were isn’t a good sign.

33-year-old Grayson, who previously wrestled for Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, was one of the original members of The Dark Order, debuting for AEW at their Double or Nothing event in 2019. Over time more members would join the group, but it didn’t look like they’d get over with fans. Yet, when Brodie Lee joined the company as The Exalted One, the group’s perception dramatically changed. Tragically though, Lee would pass away before The Dark Order could achieve its full heel potential. Nevertheless, due to their connection with Lee, they become babyfaces and one of the most loved stables in the company.

On Monday afternoon Alberto Del Rio took to Twitter to share a series of tweets that his ex-wife Ángela Velkei, a former model, had passed away this past Saturday. The pair were married in 2012 and divorced in 2016, and they shared three children Sofia, Stephanie, and Joseph. No cause of death has been reported, and Del Rio said she fought her illness to the end and thanked everyone who donated blood and platelets to try and help her. An excerpt of the tweets, which have been translated from Spanish, can be read below.

Last week it was revealed that Del Rio was pulled from making his AAA return at Triplemania with no reason given. However, we seemingly now know why he couldn’t attend this weekend with his ex-wife in such poor health. While it is understood Del Rio’s and Velkei’s marriage ended in hostility, with her claiming the former WWE Champion had been unfaithful, Del Rio insisted any relationship he had was after they separated. Yet, for the sake of their children, it appears they had managed to put their issues behind them, and now heartbreakingly, three children need to be raised without their mother.

Following The Undertaker’s WWE Hall of Fame speech last month, hardcore legend Mick Foley would trend on Twitter due to not being acknowledged. Adding to this, Foley’s own daughter Noelle would also address the snub on the social media platform. Now though, Foley has spoken about not being thanked when appearing as a guest on the In The Kliq podcast, revealing he wasn’t hurt by the omission and noted that neither The Rock nor Steve Austin was mentioned.

Between April 1996 and September 1999, under his Mankind gimmick, Foley shared a ring over 160 times with The Undertaker, with many feeling their matches reinvigorated The Undertaker’s career as previously he’d been working with the likes of I.R.S, Kama, and King Kony Bundy. Why The Undertaker didn’t mention, Foley remains unknown. However, he simply could have genuinely forgotten or had his time cut with no disrespect intended.

Recently there had feen been speculation that Rhea Ripley had started a relationship with fellow wrestler Buddy Matthews after the pair began to appear together on her Twitch streams. However, they might have been just friends, given their Australian backgrounds. Now though, Ripley has seemingly confirmed the duo is dating, as a fan on Twitter would ask what AEW wrestler Matthews has that they don’t, and she simply replied, “Me.“

25-year-old Ripley was previously in a relationship with indie wrestler Demetri Jackson who has worked as an enhancement talent for AEW and WWE. Meanwhile, 33-year-old Buddy Matthews was once engaged to Alexa Bliss after they met when both were working for WWE.

Earlier this week, Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee, collectively known as The IInspiration, and The IIconics in WWE, announced they were stepping away from pro wrestling. Their joint statement wouldn’t reveal why, but they were looking forward to exploring other opportunities. Now it has been confirmed that for McKay, those opportunities include breaking into acting, as she has been confirmed as appearing in an upcoming film titled The Charisma Killers, produced by Michael Matteo Rossi and starring Vanessa Angel. McKay’s role is listed simply as “Swinger Wife.” Additionally, her IMDB profile lists her as appearing in future movies Maverick and Prom Night.

32-year-old McKay signed with WWE in 2015 after participating in a tryout during their tour of Australia in August 2014. After a run-in NXT where she became known as Billie Kay, she and her longtime friend Cassie Lee then called Peyton Royce, would join SmackDown as The IIconics. They would achieve success holding WWE’s Women’s Tag Team Championships, then despite seemingly having no plans for them as singles competitors, the company would split them up. Ultimately this would result in both falling down the pecking order and being included in WWE’s mass releases on 15 April 2021. Since then, though, they had resumed teaming in Impact Wrestling, winning the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions on their first night in the company.

On Friday afternoon, news broke that WWE had released ten wrestlers from NXT and developmental. Among them was Malcolm Bivens, who was managing Diamond Mine, and it was assumed it was simply due to budget cuts and WWE not having anything for him. However, Fightful Select has now reported that he was let go before his contract could expire next year, with him having turned down a contract renewal offer earlier this year. Additionally, it had been proposed that he manage Omos on Raw, but he declined for reasons currently known only to himself.

What the future holds for Bivens remains to be seen, but seemingly his release isn’t devastating to him as he appears to have wanted out of WWE. Besides, there has already been speculation about him joining AEW, as he previously managed MJF when they worked together on the indies, and shortly after the news broke, the AEW star would tweet a photo of them together. He did, though, quickly delete it.

It’s no secret that Ryback loathes WWE as he is engaged in a legal dispute over the trademark of his name. Furthermore, he claims they are working with social media platforms to suppress his reach. Now though, many fans believe he has gone too far by posting a tweet about Vince McMahon’s rough childhood, calling his recently deceased mother Vicki Askew a disparaging cuss word. Yet, despite the backlash from fans, he would remain remorseless, saying that he stands by his statement and is speaking the truth.

Ryback’s feelings towards WWE seemingly go far beyond business animosity, as he appears to legitimately hate McMahon. However, in the process of venting his frustration over the years, he has destroyed his own reputation, to the point that it’s hard to imagine any major promotion ever investing in him again. Which is actually astonishing when you consider how over he was in 2012 and 2013 when feuding with CM Punk.

WWE has released more talents from their contracts in what has become too regular of an occurrence. This time they all come from NXT and development, and as of writing, Fightful’s Sean Sapp has confirmed Malcolm Bivens, Dakota Kai, Dexter Lumis, Harland, Persia Pirotta, Mila Malani, Vish Kanya, Paige Prinzivalli, Draco Anthony, and Raelyn Divine have all been informed they are no longer required. No reason has been specified, but in most cases, when there are mass releases, it is due to budgetary cuts.

While some of these names will only be known to the most hardcore of WWE fans, perhaps Harland is the biggest surprise. The 24-year-old 6ft 4 300-pound former college football player had been considered a future star and had been likened to Brock Lesnar due to his size and look. He had been paired in NXT 2.0 with Joe Gacy but had been absent from television recently. Given all of this, there may be more to his release than the typical budget cuts.

When Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler fired Tully Blanchard in storyline on AEW television, it was thought it was done to set up Bret Hart managing them. However, so far, that hasn’t happened in AEW, although he did manage FTR on a recent indie show when they faced Brock Anderson and Brian Pillman Jr. Now, though, it has been announced that FTR will have an alternative WWE Hall of Famer in their corner for their upcoming match for Patriotic Wrestling Federation on Saturday, May 14 when Mich Foley manages them.

Foley recently jokingly tweeted FTR asking them to start mentioning him on Twitter, as it was speculated that had resulted in Hart receiving a lucrative WWE contract. Of course, Harwood would play along and even tagged in Vince McMahon. Whether this interaction is what promoted the Patriotic Wrestling Federation to book the trio together isn’t known, but it would be brilliant if it did. It will now be fascinating to see if this is simply a one-off or if Foley will become FTR’s regular manager, as he would be a very popular signing for AEW if it did happen.