AEW has bid farewell to two individuals who have been with the company since its first year of existence, The Butcher and The Blade.
Fightful Select has confirmed that the tag team have officially left All Elite Wrestling as free agents their respective deals expired and they were not offered new ones. With the fact that they were allowed to have their contracts expire, The Butcher and The Blade will be able to perform anywhere they want almost immediately, as well as sign new contracts with other companies if they are offered to them.
The Butcher and The Blade originally debuted for All Elite Wrestling back on the November 27, 2019 episode of “AEW Dynamite,” emerging from underneath the ring to attack Cody Rhodes. They were managed by The Bunny, the real-life wife of The Blade who was also known as Allie on the independent circuit, and were a staple of AEW’s tag team division in its formative years. The two men would challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championships on two occasions but were unsuccessful in clinching the gold, and they leave AEW without ever holding the titles.
Their last appearance as a duo in AEW came on the January 5, 2024 episode of “AEW Rampage,” before wrestling their final match as a team under the Tony Khan umbrella on the January 18, 2024 episode of “ROH on HonorClub” against Top Flight. The Blade would end up suffering a serious back injury around this time which would require spinal fusion surgery, keeping him out of the ring for nearly two years. In that time, The Butcher would fly solo in AEW and ROH, last competing on the February 22, 2025 episode of “AEW Collision” against Gabe Kidd. Since The Blade’s return from injury, they have reunited on the independent scene, and had teased a return to AEW as recently as January 2026.
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