An appeal of a June decision in the lawsuit brought against AEW, Tony Khan and Ian Riccaboni by announcer Kevin Kelly and Brandon & Brent Tate has been dismissed.
Reported Wednesday night by Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, the Eleventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal because the original case was stayed (when a case is temporarily halted or legal proceedings are suspended either for the entire case or a portion of it). Because of that, they could not review the decision.
Via lawyer Stephen P. New, Kelly and the Tates filed the suit against AEW in late-August 2024 with Kelly alleging defamation from AEW and Riccaboni stemming from the latter’s comments on a Discord channel regarding Kelly mentioning a film on-air that was associated with QAnon conspiracies.
The Tates were fired in April 2024 with Khan saying it was due to them no-showing events. The brothers said it was due to miscommunication between themselves and management due to flying out of an airport that was further away from their usual one. Their defamation claim is based on that no-show comment.
Kelly, fired by AEW in March 2024, is seeking monetary damages due to a breach of contract. Kelly and the Tates, via New, were also requesting the court void the arbitration clause of their talent contracts, and certify a class action lawsuit over AEW misclassifying its talent as independent contractors rather than employees.
The case was moved to Florida at AEW’s request after initially going to Pennsylvania federal court.
One half of former AEW/ROH tag team The Boys is claiming that Tony Khan and AEW pulled The Outrunners from an upcoming match and is not happy about how it went down.
Brandon Tate and brother Brent were set to face Turbo Floyd and Truth Magnum for Kentucky-based EEC on Sunday, September 28. However, Brandon took to Facebook to air his claims that Khan and AEW “had removed the opponents from our match.” The promotion announced Wednesday that the show has been canceled altogether.
“Not only are they causing issues to continue outside of AEW where we no longer work and our personal life, but effecting the independent promotion, wrestlers, fans and everyone involved or planned on attending the show next weekend,” he wrote.
Announced on Monday, it was set to be the brothers’ first match since being released. They last competed in January 2024 as part of a Ring of Honor card.
“My brother and I have grinded for almost two years trying get our life back from the hole they left us in and were finally able to return to wrestling and make a little money for ourselves to try and bounce back. This dude has ruined over nearly two and a half decades of one of the best companies to ever exist in professional wrestling Ring of Honor and is now pulling talent from the independents just to get his way, but claiming his roster are “independent contractors”. I hope he realizes the company he once praised about changing wrestling for the better for EVERYONE is going completely backwards and this will one day all catch up to him,” he said.
EEC stated that “Due to no fault of their own but rather the guidelines within their obligation to AEW, the Outrunners have been informed they will be unable to perform in their scheduled match. This situation along with other prominent featured talent notifying us that they’ve double booked for this date have left us to make this challenging decision.”
AEW, Tony Khan and The Outrunners have not spoken publicly about the situation. It’s unclear if Tate’s comments could affect the aforementioned arbitration.
AEW won a ruling in court Wednesday as a judge ordered a 2024 lawsuit filed by announcer Kevin Kelly and wrestlers the Tate Twins (formerly The Boys) to go to arbitration.
First reported by Post Wrestling, judge Harvey E. Schlesinger from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted a previous motion by AEW to move to arbitration as is stated in contracts Kelly, Brendan Tate, and Brandon Tate had signed.
However, the judge denied AEW’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit altogether and ordered it “administratively closed” which makes the case inactive as arbitration proceeds. They must give updates to the court every 90 days, but the details of those updates might not be public.
About the AEW, Kevin Kelly & Tate Twins lawsuit
Via lawyer Stephen P. New, Kelly and the Tates filed the suit against AEW in late-August 2024 with Kelly alleging defamation from AEW and announcer Ian Riccaboni stemming from Riccaboni’s comments on a Discord channel regarding Kelly mentioning a film on-air that was associated with QAnon conspiracies.
The Tates were fired in April 2024 with AEW head Tony Khan saying it was due to no-showing events. The brothers said it was due to miscommunication between themselves and management due to flying out of an airport that was further away from their usual one. Their defamation claim is based on that no-show comment.
Kelly, fired by AEW in March 2024, is seeking monetary damages due to a breach of contract. Kelly and the Tates, via New, was also requesting the court void the arbitration clause of their talent contracts, and certify a class action lawsuit over AEW misclassifying its talent as independent contractors rather than employees.
The case was moved to Florida at AEW’s request after initially going to Pennsylvania federal court.
Khan spoke at the post-ROH Supercard of Honor media scrum early Saturday and was asked specifically about The Boys (Brandon and Brent Tate) publicly commenting on their release.
The Tates cited a miscommunication with the AEW/ROH regarding their travel as the reason they missed a show, while Khan told the media on Thursday that he made the “tough call” to release them for missing work on multiple occasions.
Khan is standing by his Thursday comments:
I have not seen their exact statement. After the show [Supercard] I heard a little bit of this as I was coming back. I stand by what I said, and also I’ve only owned ROH for two years.
There’s a long history of ROH. It was my call to bring them back. I liked their presentation with Dalton [Castle] and I like them both personally. I’ve had a lot of good experiences with them, and I would be open to working with them again in the future.
But their have been times when they came and have done great things for us. We did the House Rules tour… in the south and I loved having them. And they’ve been to a lot of the Saturdays, but there have been some times from my era of ROH, and I’ve been told from the company I inherited, other times in the past, and I’m just going off my experiences.
As for that, I did talk about that and confirm. I think there’s two sides to that story, but I appreciate you asking about it.
I know yesterday they said ‘stay tuned,’ so I stayed tuned, and then I heard, and I am not moved.
But thank you.
Khan also spoke in more general terms regarding the multiple cuts AEW/ROH made this week, noting that he has spent more money than he had planned to this year on free agents and production, and cited that as one reason for the releases, then circled back to The Boys:
And like I said, even with The Boys, I disagree with the point on travel and that in the history of ROH and working with us that there hadn’t been a couple times where they didn’t make it and made me change stuff, but on the other hand I really like both of them.
And whether we agree or not about that point of contention, I think it’s regardless, I think they were great. They were a great part of Dalton’s act. I like both the Tates.
I like everybody we released in this last batch recently and I’m wishing nothing but the best for any of them.
The Boys have released a statement regarding their release from AEW & ROH and Tony Khan’s claims they no-showed events.
On Thursday’s ROH Supercard of Honor media call, Khan said Brandon and Brent Tate were released due to multiple instances of missing shows.
On Friday, the Boys released a statement on X saying they were told by HR that their release was due to budget cuts and had nothing to do with a travel miscommunication that led to them missing a show.
Included in their statement are screenshots of text messages the Tate brothers had with AEW management regarding their travel to the March 16 show in Ottawa, ON, Canada. The brothers were booked to fly out of Nashville instead of Knoxville, which is their usual airport. After they contacted management about the change, they were told new travel arrangements would be made. When the travel arrangements never came, they believed it meant they were no longer booked. However, AEW management expected them to make the previously booked flights out of Nashville.
The boys’ statement reads:
We had planned to stay quiet publicly about our release to take nothing away from the biggest show of the year for ROH in Supercard tonight out of respect to the locker room that will be on it. Due to Tony’s comments and the numerous fans, media outlets, friends and coworkers that have reached out to us, that isn’t an option for us anymore. We want to apologize to the Ring of Honor fans and to the AEW fans that were invested in the storyline and were expecting the both of us to be there.
With so many fans wanting answers in addition to numerous people that have voiced their comments at the thought of us really just no showing on the some of the biggest opportunities of our lives due to Tony Khan’s statements, here it is.
My brother and I were told that we would be included in this story through Supercard and there were plans for us to be with John and Taya leading up to the show. We were asked to pitch several ideas for ourselves insinuating we would get the opportunity to show that we can wrestle more in the future.
On March 16th, our scheduled date following “Dalton losing custody”, for the first time in our history of flying in North America previously with Sinclair ROH and now Tony Khan’s ROH, our travel was booked out of Nashville instead of our home airport of Knoxville. (The screenshots of this interaction with management and travel including the times are in the comments.)
On Monday April 1st, we were contacted by management accompanied by HR on a call to inform us of our release due to “budget cuts.” At that time we raised concerns and repeatedly questioned if the release was due to the travel issues, we were repeatedly and adamantly assured that this was not the case and based solely on budget cuts.
Since Tony’s statement, we reached out yesterday providing the specific details asking for Tony to clear this up. We have gotten no response. Unfortunately in the court or public opinion for a lot of people commenting, it’s assumed that we’re guilty from 1 man’s words until we now have to prove we’re not.
We’re now forced to release this info along with the screenshot proof to keep people from putting us down on social media or on this evening’s show. We understand that putting this. out is detrimental to our careers but our back is against the wall on this and it was either this or let Tony Khan go on saying we no showed.
We want to thank each and every fan. who has reached out and made your voices heard as well as the locker room members who have reached out that know the truth as well. We hope you all still enjoy the show this evening for the sake of the wrestlers putting on their best and appreciate how much we’ve seen that people really care about two boys who were always considered replaceable.
The Boys announced they had signed with Ring of Honor last summer.
They debuted in the promotion in 2014 after training with Ohio Valley Wrestling. They would begin wrestling as Dalton Castle’s Boys the following year. Castle and the Boys are two-time ROH Six Man Tag Team Champions. They defeated Bully Ray and The Briscoes to win the belts for the first time at ROH Best in the World 2017. They would drop them two months later to Hangman Page and The Young Bucks. Castle and the Boys then regained the titles from The Righteous’ Vincent, Dutch, and Bateman at Death Before Dishonor 2022 before dropping them to current champions The Embassy at Final Battle 2022.
Their most recent match took place at last week’s ROH tapings from Nashville when along with Castle they lost to The Dark Order’s Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, and John Silver.
Stokely Hathaway will be in tag team action on Thursday’s Ring of Honor on HonorClub as he teams with ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe to face The Boys (Brent & Brandon Tate).
The match was made during a recent promo. Dalton Castle confronted Hathaway about the TV Title eliminator tournament. Joe walked into the segment and declared the match would happen, much to the dismay of Hathaway.
Former ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods will take on former partner Silas Young in a Pure rules match. Last week, Woods decided to part ways with the Varsity Athletes and go out on his own.
ROH Women’s Champion Athena will return to non-title action on a long ROH winning streak as she faces Brittany J in a Proving Ground match.
After defeating Robyn Renegade last week, Billie Starkz will take on Robyn’s sister Charlette Renegade who jumped Starkz after the victory.
Lady Frost will go head-to-head with Trish Adora.
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Gravity defeated Gringo Loco
Poor Gravity got crushed twice in this match with the full weight of Loco on him, but somehow survived to win the match. This was a spot fest all the way, but a fun one.
Gravity decided to use his name to his advantage, hitting a splash early on for a two count. Loco used his size to his advantage, pressing Gravity into the air and then catching him in a fallaway slam for a two count. Loco hit a chop and played to the crowd before hitting another chop in the corner and Irish whipping Gravity to the corner. Gravity ran up the ropes and back flipped off before turning around and powerslaming a charging Gringo Loco. That was cool.
Loco shoved Gravity to the floor and hit a double jump springboard moonsault to the floor on Gravity. What a loco spot, pardon the pun. Loco then absolutely crushed Gravity with a brutal springboard twisting senton, causing Gravity to become victim to his own name. Gravity, somehow not a pancake, shoved Loco to the outside and then rolled up the to the top rope, launched himself over the post, and hit a hurricanrana on Loco on the floor.
Gravity missed a 450 splash and Loco countered into a standing Spanish fly as Gravity got back up. Gravity tried to float over into a sunset flip bomb, but he lost his grip and was crushed again by Loco falling backwards and landing right on his face. Gravity and Loco went to the top rope and Loco hit some sort of a torture rack suplex off the top rope for a 2-count. Gravity and Loco went to the ropes again and Gravity hit a Samoan drop off the middle rope before hitting a splash for the pin.
Josh Woods defeated Silas Young in a Pure Rules match
Good technical match from Woods and Young with an awesome finish.
Woods refused a handshake from Young, who applauded because he was in favour of Woods having an attitude now. Young and Woods locked up and Young hit a drop toe hold causing Woods to grab the ropes as he went down, which counted as a rope break. Young and Woods locked up again, and Woods was able to take him down, but Young did counter out of a Chaos Theory for a 2-count.
Woods sent Young crashing into the ropes and then drove him shoulder first into the turnbuckle. The announcers noted that Woods was way more focused without Mark Sterling in his corner, and while using the rough tactics that Young and Sterling had taught him over the years, he was looking far stronger here. Young, trying to avoid further damage to the arm, kept going for pinfall attempts to keep Woods at bay.
Woods stood up and punched Young right in the face to break up the pinfall attempts, getting his one warning, and then hit a running twisting vertical suplex into the corner dropping Young right on his head for the win. That was a brutal finish, and the crowd reacted strongly to it. They got something with Woods here, I think.
–Maria Kanellis Bennett was backstage, saying she was scouting for an army to protect her kingdom. Leyla Hirsch walked in and said that there was nothing Maria could do for her, but Maria said that she could provide some real competition for her, and said Hirsch would face Rachel Ellering later.
Athena defeated Brittany J in a Proving Ground match
This was an awesome squash match, as Athena continues to be awesome in ROH.
Athena got rolled up early as she played to the crowd, but Athena made her pay soon thereafter pulling Brittany J from the apron to the floor and then brutally throwing her into the guardrail with a crash. Athena screamed at Ian Riccaboni before returning to the ring and countering a headscissors with a cartwheel and hitting a pop-up powerbomb and a brutal forearm for the win.
–Robyn & Charlette Renegade ran down after the match and started beating on Athena. Billie Starkz ran down to the ring to make the save and drive the twins out of the ring.
Samoa Joe & Stokley Hathaway defeated The Boys (Brandon & Brent)
Stokely wanted to get involved in the match, so Joe let him a few times between the easy beating Joe was giving The Boys. Stokley claimed he wanted to get the win when Joe went for the muscle buster, so Joe held one of the Boys and then walked away with said boy as Stokely flew off the ropes and crashed and burned before choking out said Boy. Joe wins. So does Stokely. Sort of.
–Billie Starkz was with Lexy Nair and it was announced she would be facing Charlette Renegade. The Renegade Twins walked up and trash talked Starkz before the end of the interview.
The Gates of Agony (Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun) (w/ Prince Nana) defeated Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal
The Gates of Agony briefly got the heat on Daniels, but he was able to hit a drop toe hold and tag out to Sydal, who hit a standing twisting senton on Kaun for a 2-count. Daniels and Sydal then hit a drop toe hold. Daniels was ready to go for the Best Moonsault Ever, but Kaun was able to shove Daniels away, and Liona hit a clothesline on Daniels to get the advantage.
Liona crushed Daniels as Kaun hit a backstabber and Liona hit a splash, but Sydal broke up the pinfall. Kaun locked on a sleeper before hitting a uranage into a backbreaker on Daniels. Daniels was able to tag out Sydal, but it didn’t go very well over the next few minutes, as Daniels came back in and ate a fireman’s carry into a gutbuster for the pin.
Madison Rayne defeated Dani Mo
This was not very good. Rayne looked a bit rough. Rayne went for a neckbreaker on Mo, but Mo fell a bit early and may have actually whiplashed her neck on the way down. Mo faked Rayne out with a kick to the head only to hit the stomach. Rayne then just grabbed Mo and hit a Cross Rayne for the win. This was not good.
The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Jon Silver, & Alex Renyolds) defeated Corey Calhoun, Isaiah Broner, & Lord Crewe
Evil Uno started the match with Broner. As The Dark Order was beating on Broner, Stu Grayson came out to the ramp and distracted them, leading to Calhoun being able to roll Renyolds up for a 2-count. This did not last long as Dark Order took Calhoun to the dark realm for the pinfall.
–Claudio Castagnoli was backstage, saying that while he was not in the arena tonight, he was very much there, and that no one he has faced has given him a run for his money. Castagnoli talked about when he lost the ROH World Championship to Chris Jericho, and how he took the title back from Jericho, learning that the only thing that mattered was that he had a simple job – to keep the ROH World Championship from people who were not worthy of it, like Eddie Kingston, PAC, and Mark Briscoe, and he was really good at his job. This was a great promo.
Cole Karter defeated Griff Garrison
Garrison had some fire in this one, going right after Karter, hitting a series of hard chops, strikes, and then a falcon arrow for a 2-count. Karter looked rough in this one, but showed some good heel instincts despite the rough offence. As Karter hit a weird dominator type slam for the win, Maria Kanellis walked down to the ring and whispered something in Karter’s ear before leaving.
Billie Starkz defeated Charlette Renegade
Charlette did not abide by the Code of Honor, hitting a hard forearm in the handshake, before beating on Starkz for a bit. Starkz tried to escape to the floor but got distracted by Robyn, and Renegade jumped off the apron to continue the attack. Charlette grabbed Starkz by the nose and pulled back with a camel clutch.
Starkz hit a kick to Charlette, but was cut off on the ropes by Robyn, who did so right in front of the referee. Oops. Charlette hit a superplex, but Starkz rolled through into a Last Shot for a 2-count. Renegade managed to hit a landslide for a 2-count, but Starkz was able to hit a neutralizer type move for the win.
–Robyn Renegade ran in and the Renegade Twins started beating on Starkz, but Athena ran down and made the save. As they faced off, Athena told Starkz to duck, and then both women hit a dive on the twins. Athena challenged Starkz to a fight in a joking way, and Starkz offered a handshake, but Athena refused. Athena then said, “Come on, minion! Let’s go!” Starkz followed with hesitation, as the announcers noted she might not be able to trust Athena.
–Ari Davari & Tony Nese were backstage, and Nese talked about why he was trying to get the fans to do work outs with him, and how frustrating it is that he gets interrupted by someone as he tries to make the lives of the fans better. Nese said Mark Sterling promised he would have the floor tonight, and they were going to have a full group training session as the fans needed it badly with how out of shape they were.
Lee Johnson, Action Andretti, & Darius Martin defeated Lee Moriarty & The Workhorsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry)
This was a really good match with a finish that the crowd didn’t seem to expect.
Johnson & Moriarty started the match with a really nice exchange. Moriarty tried to escape the grasp of Martin and Andretti but fell victim to several double team moves that also took out Drake and Henry. Moriarty and Johnson resumed their exchange, but Henry hit a knee to the back of Johnson letting Moriarty tag out to Drake, who leveled Johnson with a Bossman slam. Henry tagged in and hit some very hard kicks to Johnson. Johnson ducked an attack and tagged out to Andretti, who ran wild hitting a dive on Henry on the floor but missing a 450 splash on Moriarty.
Andretti hit a standing Spanish fly instead, but was soon falling victim to Drake and Henry hitting a pop-up powerbomb for a 2-count thata was broken up by Martin. Martin ate a massive twisting butterfly suplex from Drake but Andretti broke it up. Andretti countered an O’Connor roll with a bridge and got the pinfall on Henry.
–Athena was with Lexy Nair and she brought in Billie Starkz. Athena assigned a minion number to Starkz, but Starkz said it wasn’t what was important as they had to deal with the Renegade Twins, challenging them to a tag match next week. Athena said that Starkz shouldn’t think, since that was not her roll, and she intimidated Nair into agreeing with her before demanding that Starkz drive them to the mall.
Lady Frost defeated Trish Adora
Frost looked good in this match, especially at the finish with the corkscrew moonsault for the win.
Frost slipped slightly on a handspring, but they played it right, letting Adora take it as an opportunity to kick Frost in the head and get the advantage. Adora then did a stretch behind Frost before putting her foot on the back of Frost’s head and driving it to the mat. Adora then did the splits on the shoulder of Frost, driving her head down to the mat while she was seated. That looked brutal.
Adora hit a standing crossbody for a 2-count before hitting a German suplex. Adora hit a sternum breaker in the corner for a 2-count. Frost ducked a clothesline and hit a spinning kick for a 2-count before hitting a Frostbite for the pin.
–Kiera Hogan was with Lexy Nair and talked about how she has been keeping her eyes on Lady Frost. She said she was going to put her fire against Frost, melting the ice.
Leyla Hirsch defeated Rachel Ellering
This was a short match, but I liked it.
Ellering was given a lot in this match, hitting a nice brainbuster while selling her arm that Hirsch worked over with an armbar earlier in the match. Hirsch, I think, was a heel, but the crowd seemed to wanting to root for her. Hirsch floated over onto the back of Ellering after a corner charge, locking on a sleeper and then transitioning to an octopus stretch. Ellering fought out, but Hirsch was able to counter a pinfall attempt after a Bossman slam into a crucifix pin before transitioning into an armbar for the submission.
Dalton Castle defeated Peter Avalon
Dalton Castle is the best, and he should be on TV every single week on every show.
Avalon looked very shocked at the charisma of Dalton Castle. Castle yelled at Avalon as he tried to escape Castle’s grasp, saying, “You wiggle away from me again and I’ll rip your face off!” I laughed. Castle proceeded to suplex Avalon around the ring. Castle got the win soon thereafter and yelled to the camera that he was going to take the ROH Television championship before long.
–Shane Taylor was with Lexy Nair, and talking about how in the past with ROH, he was established as the greatest TV champion, greatest six-man champion, and greatest stable of all time in ROH, but people only wanted to talk about the old guard, and he was going to finally put that to rest when he got to fight them, and specifically Samoa Joe because he wanted his ROH Television championship back. Awesome promo.
–Tony Nese came out and claimed that his match was cancelled, so he was going to lead the crowd in the workout. The crowd actually started to participate before Metalik made Jerry Lynn came out and informed Nese that his lawyer was wrong, and that Tony Khan was a bit tired of Nese trying to avoid wrestling, so he was facing someone who he was familiar with tonight.
Metalik defeated Tony Nese
Metalik is such a fantastic wrestler, and I really hope he is given a chance to get over in ROH and AEW.
Metalik and Tony Nese reunite as 205 Live lives on in ROH. After some early heat from Nese, Metalik hit a Asai Moonsault to the floor on Nese, kicking Nese right in the back off the head hard as they went down. Both guys seemed fine, but both landed hard there. Nese fought out of a fireman’s carry and hit a powerbomb on Metalik for a 2-count. Metalik hit a superkick on a running Nese before hitting a landslide on Nese for the win.
Final Thoughts
Good episode of ROH on HonorClub tonight. I’m not sure if the show really needed to be 2 hours and 14 minutes long, but the angles they advanced were good, and the matches were largely good too. I think they are trying to find a balance with the shows after Dark and Elevation were cancelled, providing chances for younger stars to get reps while also trying to advance angles for the bigger stars. They definitely achieved that tonight.
On social media, Brent Tate confirmed that he and his brother Brandon have signed with the company.
“@TateTwinBrandon & I have officially signed with @ringofhonor! Thank you, @TonyKhan for the opportunity and keeping us motivated!” he wrote.
At Death Before Dishonor back in July, The Boys along with Dalton Castle defeated The Righteous (Vincent, Dutch, and Bateman) to win the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles. Prior to their return to Ring of Honor, The Tate Twins appeared on two episodes of AEW Dark Elevation in 2021, losing to Jurassic Express and The Acclaimed.
The brothers began wrestling in 2009, and started to make appearances for Ring of Honor in 2014. They are best known for their run as Dalton Castle’s Boys, accompanying him to the ring wearing peacock-inspired masks. After Castle turned heel in 2019 and attacked The Boys, the Tate Twins worked for promotions such as the NWA and Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Dalton Castle and The Boys are the new ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions.
Castle and The Boys (Brandon and Brent Tate) defeated The Righteous (Vincent, Dutch, and Bateman) to win the titles for the first time. The finish had Vincent hitting a tope on Castle, but Castle hit a rebound hurricanrana on Vincent, a German suplex on Dutch, then pinned Bateman with the bangarang to win the titles.
Vincent, Dutch, and Bateman won the titles back at Final Battle on December 11 of last year, defeating Shane Taylor Promotions (Taylor, Moses, and Kaun). They had held the titles for 224 days. The titles had not been defended since, as they were not featured at ROH Supercard of Honor or on AEW shows after Tony Khan purchased the company.
Vincent has worked dates with Impact Wrestling since the previous version of Ring of Honor shut down following Final Battle. Bateman has worked dates with New Japan Strong, forming the Stray Dog Army faction with Barrett Brown and Misterioso.
