On May 31st, Bear Bronson announced that he was set to become a free agent on June 1st, ending his time with AEW.
Bronson hadn't wrestled on AEW/ROH TV since the end of 2024. He was part of The Iron Savages with Jacked Jameson and Beefcake Boulder.
Speaking on The Wrestling Junkies podcast, Bronson detailed his AEW departure.
"I believe, at this point in my career, I'm not going to say I ever fell out of love with wrestling, but I do believe I hit a point in AEW where I felt complacent. Just with the role we were given and when you're surrounded by a lot of people that pressure you to 'just be grateful. Be grateful you're getting used for that minute and 30 seconds.' You kind of put yourself in this mode of forcing yourself to be happy with what you're doing when I'm looking at my best friends becoming world champions and my peers chasing the things they want, but I have a lot of people looking down on me saying, 'Just be happy you're used at all.' That kind of gets to you, 'I am happy,' even though you're not. The truth is, having a job with AEW, that is something people would kill for. I'm still grateful that over the past four years I've gotten to grow with AEW. Good experiences, bad experiences. I went through a serious growth period," he said.
Bronson said that things changed when he met his wife Gabby Forza, who went from being a bodybuilder to diving into the world of wrestling. He said being along the journey with his wife helped him find his passion again.
"AEW changed us from Bear Country to Iron Savages. That is something where I felt like I was being a follower and not a leader. I'm the type who, if someone throws out an idea, I'm open-minded, so I never gave push back on that. It's a weird period in my life where I'm making this money, I'm on salary, I have a guaranteed check, but my passion isn't there. Being on this journey with my wife and watching her succeed so early because she's doing it the way she wants to do it with her unique character and ability, the way she attacked it, she made me fall in love with wrestling all over again and made me realize what is important versus what's not as important as I thought. That's a huge part where things started to change [mentally]. I had grown more bitter and I would watch other people succeed and aspire to do things I wanted to do and I thought, 'Why am I not doing this? Why am I following what these people say and not taking a gamble?'"
Bronson also credited Mike Santana and his story. Santana left AEW, where he was seldom used at the end of his run, to working various independent promotions and signing with TNA, saying Santana followed his passion.
Bronson reiterated that he was grateful for his time in AEW before saying, "I do feel like I was put in a box. Right before I left, I had spoken to an office person where I asked them, 'We're being very good team players. We do everything that is asked of us and we give zero pushback. Tony really likes the Iron Savages characters.' He was kind of the only one that did. He loved the motorboating and all that. I feel like I can take anything and try my best and have fun with it. I do feel that was a little to my detriment because it is something he thought was entertaining. 'Great. I'm making my boss happy.' I asked them, 'Is this something that can grow bigger? Over the next year, can we rise up the card?' They were very honest. Someone got back to me and said, 'No, they just see this as an enhancement thing.' That's when I was like, 'Oh man, I gotta get the fuck out of here.' That answered it. That wasn't the last straw, but it was a big straw where, what I was doing wasn't right. It is now confirmed I'm being complacent with my spot. CM Punk and Steve Austin say it; if you're in this business and your goal isn't to be a top guy, or close to the top guy, you shouldn't be there. I believe that, too. Your dream isn't to be the guy already in the ring and lose in 30 seconds. Your dream is to main event WrestleMania, to be a star, to be the top guy, to be the best performer you can be. When they told me that, sirens went off in my head. 'I have to get the fuck out of here.' That's no knock on them. They have a lot of signed people and a lot of people to cater to. Tony Kahn and AEW are not sitting at home thinking about Bear Bronson. I don't blame them for that. That's not their fault. I need to pull back and when I do leave, I have to recollect."
Bronson is set to make his GCW debut at Tournament of Survival.
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