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Kinda hope Rusev and/or Aleister Black do a CVV sit down at some point and discuss what the hell actually happened with them in AEW. Kinda doubt it'll happen as both guys were big into streaming while in AEW and they were relatively mum on their whereabouts or always said they didn't know why their booking was what it was. We'll never hear TK or anyone give his side of it.
My read on it though is that it was something like this:
-Both guys felt underutilized in Vince's WWE main roster and were excited to go to AEW where they felt they could end up rolling up the card
-Both guys had some early success. Miro did that dumb Kip Sabian shit, by his own admission he wanted to try something different and show a different side of his personality, but as soon as COVID ended and fans came back they gave him a change in character and a lengthy TNT run. Black got to feud with Cody and eventually start building a stable around him.
-In summer 2022 Triple H takes over the book and you can almost pinpoint this as the moment their booking gets extra weird. Both guys had extended absences. Miro returns for All Out but then disappears again amidst rumors he turned down a Hangman program. Black seems to salute the fans goodbye at All Out and goes on another absence, reportedly asking for his release. Reading through the tea leaves it feels like both guys believe Triple H would book them like NXT again and they want to go back...now starting to protect themselves for returns.
-Neither guy gets out of their deal. Miro's gone for nearly a full year only to go back to squashing people on Punk's Collision, and then disappear on and off again being gone for a full year before his release is finalized. Black at least sticks around to do Trios and Tag stuff but notably goes almost 2 years between singles matches until a singles program with Cope. Throughout this both guys continue to claim they don't know why they're not being booked (or in Black's case why he's left off of singles)
-Meltzer and Alvarez keep heavy-handedly suggesting their booking is the way it is because they're complaining about who they're asked to work with and they don't want to do jobs
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I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Plenty of misused guys from WWE think they'll get a huge push kinda like what TNA used to do, and they can be protective of that.
At the same time I really doubt they were refusing jobs. I think AEW encourages talent to pitch ideas and their ideas might not've jived with what TK wanted, but TK's too much of a bitch to tell them to work with who he says and he'd rather just not book someone in a program they don't want.
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