Dark Order's Alan "5" Angels finishing up with AEW -- details on what happened (Patreon)

By Jeremy Lambert & SRS

Alan Angels has explained it all when it comes to his AEW contract.

On June 27, Angels tweeted, "Excited for what's next." The tweet had many fans speculating if that means Angels' time in AEW was coming to an end. Angels added more fuel to the fire by changing his profile picture to black and removing AEW references.

Speaking to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Angels revealed that his AEW contract does expire on June 30, which would make him a free agent on July 1.

"My contract, I was told about a month and a half ago, that they are not going to re-sign me. They did offer me a per-appearance, which I decided not to take, just solely based off what I thought was best for me. I feel there is more room to grow outside of AEW, right now, at this point in my career. It's nothing against AEW or Tony Khan or any of the higher-ups in the business. It's a personal thing. I feel, me going on the Indies and showing people what I can really do and showing people that I am a good fucking wrestler, I feel that will raise my stock -- not saying it's impossible to do that in AEW, but I guess the perception, how fans perceive Alan Angels, is, I'm the bottom guy in Dark Order and I feel I can change that outside of AEW. It's possible in AEW, but I feel it would take longer. On top of that, I never got to have a great Indie career. I was on the Indies for three years, got lucky, and got scooped up. As a wrestling fan, being an Indie wrestler and doing cool ass Indie shows, that's a thing I want to do. There are plenty of places to make money in pro wrestling right now. That's not to say that I won't be back in AEW, maybe I will, I don't know, but that's pretty much it. They offered me something, I felt it was better for me not to. That's all it was," he said.

Angels was signed by AEW following his April 2020 bout against Kenny Omega, which received criticism as some thought Omega "looked weak" for giving Angels, an unknown on AEW TV, too much offense. He was a mainstay member of the Dark Order during his time in the company.

Speaking about the tweet and the uproar it caused, Angels said, "I put out the tweet, I didn't really mean to put it out as a teaser or whatever. I didn't expect everybody to freak out about it. It was literally just a normal tweet, at first. Then I saw some people speculating some stuff and I was like, 'You know what, my contract is up in a few days, I'm just going to run with it.' Then I turned my profile picture black, took the AEW out of my bio, and really just stirred the pot because I love watching people freak out on social media. People were hitting me up, asking if I was okay. Yeah, I'm fine, I just like watching people freak out on the internet."

Angels isn't the only Dark Order member who has left AEW recently as Stu Grayson departed the company after his contract expired on April 30.

When asked about reuniting with Stu on the Independent scene, Angels said, "I'm open to whatever. If anything, I'd like to have a match with him. Whether that be at C4 or wherever else he wants to go. That would be my main thing. If somebody wants to book us for a tag, I'm open to it. I'm still wearing the Dark Order hat, it's not like I'm kicked out of the group or whatever. I have a New Japan show, it's already taped, with Uno as a tag. Stu leaving was a big thing for all of us and maybe was part of all of it. I'm open to do whatever with Stu."

The NJPW STRONG bout featuring Angels teaming with Evil Uno was taped on June 19. It is unknown when the match will air.

Angels has his booking information currently listed in his Twitter bio.

When aggregating this story, please also include the video link to the interview that will go live Thursday: https://youtu.be/WKvcNO5kvRs