Bear Bronson Praises AEW For Letting Him ‘Hit The Ground Running’ On The Indies Before His Deal Expired

Bear Bronson discusses his exit from AEW.

June 2025 was a big turning point for Bear Bronson’s career, as he finished up with AEW and became a free agent. Bronson continued his grind on the independent scene until he signed with TNA later that year.

Speaking with Fightful, Bronson first thanked Sean Ross Sapp for reaching out to him during tough times.

“I’ll actually give props like to AEW because everything that had happened, the controversial stuff—which, by the way, I’ve never thanked you in person. You were one of the people that hit me up just to see if I was okay and to see if my wife was okay. That was just really cool. Like it was not a professional thing. It was purely personal. That meant a lot to me. So I never got to thank you for that.”

Continuing on, Bear Bronson credited AEW for letting him “hit the ground running” on the indies before his deal expired.

“The thing with AEW where everything had happened, the controversial stuff had happened and it came to a conclusion, like, ‘It’s just too soon. We’re not going to use you.’ They do have a policy where you have to clear all your Indies with them and I was like, ‘Well, if my deal is coming up and I want to hit the ground running, I want to start now. I don’t want to wait ‘till it’s done.’ They were so cool about it. They were like, ‘Just go, just do your thing.’ That was very, very cool of them to do that. They didn’t have to do that, but they were very cool to do that. That’s where in that calendar year of 2025 into 2026, I was able to lock in 120 and hopefully maybe even get more this year.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bronson talked at length about his decision to sign with TNA. Fans can check out his full comments by clicking here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Bear Bronson in the video linked at the top of this article.

Reminder to check out TNA Wrestling in New Orleans, Louisiana later this month. The company will host their Sacrifice event at the Alario Center on Friday, March 27. The following day, the promotion will return to the same venue for television tapings.