Jay Lethal signs with AEW, set to challenge for TNT title

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/ring-honor/ja ... tle-359496

By Joseph Currier | @josephcurrier | Nov 13, 2021 9:04 pm

One of the top stars from Ring of Honor has arrived in AEW.

Former ROH World Champion Jay Lethal made his AEW debut at Full Gear on Saturday night. It was announced that Lethal will challenge for Sammy Guevara's TNT Championship on Dynamite this Wednesday.

Lethal appeared on stage at Full Gear after being introduced by Tony Schiavone. Lethal declared that he's now All Elite, and he challenged Guevara to defend the TNT title against him on Wednesday's Dynamite in Norfolk, Virginia. Guevara then came out to the stage and accepted Lethal's challenge.

Following his debut, AEW posted a graphic on social media announcing that Lethal has signed with the company. AEW also released its first T-shirt for Lethal.

Lethal is a former ROH World Champion, Pure Champion, Television Champion, and Tag Team Champion. He also previously wrestled for TNA and held their X-Division and Tag Team titles.

Lethal was part of the card at All In in 2018. He retained the ROH World Championship against Flip Gordon at the show.

It was announced last month that ROH is going on hiatus after their Final Battle pay-per-view this December. ROH wrote that it "will be taking the first quarter of 2022 to work internally to reimagine" the promotion. ROH talent won't have their contracts renewed and are able to work wherever they want immediately.

In July 2020, Lethal issued a statement amid the #SpeakingOut movement saying that he's never sexually harassed or abused anyone. The statement was in response to Kelly Klein alleging that multiple women had brought complaints and evidence of sexual assault/harassment by Lethal to ROH. Klein said that ROH ignored it or covered it up.

[Big Red Machine]

That last paragraph should have some interesting fallout.

[Thelone]

That last paragraph should have some interesting fallout.

You mean like Guevara and Allin? It'll be swept under the rug because "Klein and Hendrix were mentally unstable" or whatever the excuse was that ROH used back then.

[Big Red Machine]

That last paragraph should have some interesting fallout.

You mean like Guevara and Allin? It'll be swept under the rug because "Klein and Hendrix were mentally unstable" or whatever the excuse was that ROH used back then.

I don't know that anyone ever said anything about Klein but Hendrix... well... she gave three different stories about why she wasn't used (the first one was Delirious didn't like her, which was quickly followed by "Mandy Leon didn't like me," claimed she would have a lawyer show up with more evidence against Lethal and then never showed, and there was also the previous incident with Dixie Carter where Hendrix claimed that Dixie said something very insensitive about her weight and it came out that Hendrix had grossly twisted Dixie's words, so...

Klein not having showed up in AEW by now seems a little weird, but I figured she was having concussion issues or something like that, as she hasn't wrestled since leaving ROH.

[Thelone]

I don't know that anyone ever said anything about Klein but Hendrix... well... she gave three different stories about why she wasn't used (the first one was Delirious didn't like her, which was quickly followed by "Mandy Leon didn't like me," claimed she would have a lawyer show up with more evidence against Lethal and then never showed, and there was also the previous incident with Dixie Carter where Hendrix claimed that Dixie said something very insensitive about her weight and it came out that Hendrix had grossly twisted Dixie's words, so...

I don't remember if it was during #SpeakingOut or the Joey Mercury "leaks", but Klein told a story about Lethal being creepy towards her in a hotel on the road and filed a complaint at Sinclair that went nowhere. She also implied that she wasn't the only one in that situation.

As for Hendrix, the truth is most likely somewhere in between "Lethal is a sexual predator" and "Hendrix is a lying psycho", but considering this isn't the only story of Lethal being inappropriate towards women, I kinda doubt she was bullshitting around just because she was let go.

To be fair, I don't think Lethal is going to be cancelled over what we've heard before (it's the usual "his words vs. hers" and fairly "light" compared to some of the horror stories from Speaking Out), but it's not a flattering look nonetheless (especially since he was kinda in a position of power in ROH).

Klein not having showed up in AEW by now seems a little weird, but I figured she was having concussion issues or something like that, as she hasn't wrestled since leaving ROH.

I mean, she's not good and doesn't tick any box AEW cares about.

[Big Red Machine]

I think Kelly Klein is quite good (and, if anything, she at least checks the nepotism box).
I didn't realize that she had named Lethal specifically.

What is this Joey Mercury thing?

[Thelone]

I think Kelly Klein is quite good (and, if anything, she at least checks the nepotism box).
I didn't realize that she had named Lethal specifically.

Unless I'm missing someone more obvious, because she's married to Whitmer? I doubt he has any pull in the company.

What is this Joey Mercury thing?

In late 2019, he unloaded a ton of ROH backstage stuff on Twitter, like having next to no security (the infamous Bully Ray "be a fan" incident) and medical staff (something about Gordon I believe) at shows, a bunch of things we kinda already knew about good ol' Gillegand, Klein working with a concussion, and some contract tidbits that ended up being wrong I think. I'm pretty sure some other guy also "leaked out" more backstage gossips at the same time and invalidated some of Mercury's claims, but that was more "ROH and SBG are bad" stuff overall.

...

So anyway, Lethal in AEW eh?

[Big Red Machine]

I think Kelly Klein is quite good (and, if anything, she at least checks the nepotism box).
I didn't realize that she had named Lethal specifically.

Unless I'm missing someone more obvious, because she's married to Whitmer? I doubt he has any pull in the company.

Yeah, that was what I was going for.

What is this Joey Mercury thing?

In late 2019, he unloaded a ton of ROH backstage stuff on Twitter, like having next to no security (the infamous Bully Ray "be a fan" incident) and medical staff (something about Gordon I believe) at shows, a bunch of things we kinda already knew about good ol' Gillegand, Klein working with a concussion, and some contract tidbits that ended up being wrong I think. I'm pretty sure some other guy also "leaked out" more backstage gossips at the same time and invalidated some of Mercury's claims, but that was more "ROH and SBG are bad" stuff overall.

...

So anyway, Lethal in AEW eh?

Ah. Right. That sounds familiar.