The releases keep coming in AEW.
We’re only three months into 2025 and Tony Khan has released Miro, Malakai Black, Ricky Starks, Maria (her contract expired), Leyla Hirsch (left the company), and Rey Fenix. Another name has been released, but this one is less surprising - Zak Knight.
The real life brother of Saraya made his official AEW debut in 2024 and beat Angelo Parker on an episode of the now cancelled Rampage. Knight joined The Outcasts stable with her sister, but that was relatively short lived as he made the transition over to Ring of Honor. The 33-year-old was consistently winning matches; in fact, Knight remains undefeated in Ring of Honor. He’s also undefeated in AEW, which includes all of his dark matches. So what happened to the England native?
In an interview on Cruising With Kayfabe, Knight explained that he was taken off of television due to personal reasons back in december 2024:
"I had high hopes that I may get on [AEW All In], but I come back to the UK in June. I needed a bit of time off for personal reasons. We’ve spoken about mental health, I felt like mine was dipping a little bit, and I wanted to take care of that, as well as my wife and children.
I’d been on the road for nine months, I’d come home for maybe 25 days in those nine months, and it was two-three days here, two-three days there. Primarily, when I’m not working, I’m in an Airbnb on my own. So things just got crazy, truthfully, but Tony was brilliant. He said to me that I can have until All In off, so I got my six-seven weeks where I could be home, recharge, get things sorted."
But Knight never made his AEW return following his brief time off. There’s no word on why Tony Khan opted to keep him on the sidelines. It seems to be the case that Tony Khan just had nothing for him creatively.
Despite not appearing on AEW television, Knight has been working the indie scene here and there. He recently competed at South West Wrestling on January 26th in a Triple Threat match for the SWW Championship. JJ Gale successfully retained his title that night. There’s no telling where Knight will go following his AEW exit. He’s still a young athlete so he has some time to make a name for himself on the indie scene, unless one of the other big promotions is interested in the former AEW star.
Bryan Alaverez of Wrestling Observer guaranteed that there would be more AEW releases after Leyla Hirsch, and it seems that his statement is coming to fruition.