AEW Star Exits Company Less Than One Year After Debut
CJ Perry is no longer with AEW.
All Elite Wrestling continues to go through shifts and shakeups with its roster. Through the company's first three years of existence, just about every talent in the locker room remained under contract, with only a couple of names moving on preemptively. When 2022 came around, the first batch of three-year contracts began to expire. The first name to exit was co-founder Cody Rhodes, as he elected to return to WWE in April 2022. Notable names like Brian Pillman Jr. (NXT's Lexis King) and Jade Cargill followed Rhodes to WWE, while originals like Joey Janela and Marko Stunt returned to the independent circuit.
Not every name to move on from AEW has been a tenured individual. Stars like Lio Rush and Matt Cardona have been brought in for a couple of programs and then moved on. The same can be said for the latest AEW departure, as her run ends less than one year after it began.
CJ Perry Leaves AEW
CJ Perry is no longer with All Elite Wrestling.
As reported by Fightful and then later confirmed by Perry herself, the performer formerly known as Lana has left AEW just 11 months after she debuted at AEW All Out 2023.
"(My) time with them (AEW) has just finished," Perry told USA Today. "I'm really focused on finding talent and cultivating them and helping them become the best wrestler, champion possible, I guess you could say I want to be the Paul Heyman."
Perry spent her entire AEW tenure as a manager, first debuting to confront ex-husband Miro at AEW All Out 2023. Miro shunned Perry, resulting in Perry pursuing another talent to align with. She ended up managing Andrade El Idolo up until this past December's AEW Worlds End. Perry turned on Andrade at that event. This would be her last appearance for the company.
Perry is most known for her tenure with WWE. She spent eight years at the global leader in sports-entertainment, largely managing Rusev (Miro). She would begin wrestling in 2016, competing in a total of 231 matches over the course of five years, most of which came on WWE's live event scene. Her last match was on a May 2021 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw.
Perry's words indicate that she plans to stay in professional wrestling, but it is unclear as to where she will go next.
