Ex-AEW Star Breaks Silence On Controversial ‘Riyadh’ Comment

At TNA’s Bound for Glory 2026 event, former AEW star Max Caster made his debut. The star took on Moose and dropped a rap before his match. While this was all good, what he said in the rap wasn’t. He said, “I drop bombs. You don’t even have to fly to Riyadh.”

Now, it seems like no one at TNA was ready for that, as the company parted ways with the star. Taking to Instagram, he said,

“Just to address all the TNA stuff, I want to say thank you to Carlos Silva. I talked to him in person. He was very generous, very professional, even after all this stuff happened. And I understand why he did what he did. It’s his show. He’s got to protect TNA, and I went too far for him. So I want to apologize to him and everybody else in the office. I want to apologize to anyone who vouched for me to get that spot. I feel like I let those people down. Thank you to Moose for sharing your platform with me, and I wish things didn’t turn out the way they did. But I’m proud of that match, and I’m sorry for how things have ended up.”

“And then, for anybody who’s offended, I just want everybody to know that when I do these raps, it’s never to offend people. It’s only to entertain. So, in my mind, it’s entertainment value first, and then, if you’re offended by it, that’s your right. So I can’t apologize for anyone being offended, but just know that it’s not my intention to make people upset. If it gets a reaction, I think I did my job. It was a very relevant part of the show and highly talked about, so I feel good about that. But the consequences of everything, I’m accepting that. I can accept the facts of that.”

“And then, to anybody who is asking if I’m good, I’m good. I’m just embarrassed about how all this happened. You don’t want it to be one match and then that’s it, you get fired. But again, that’s the reality of the situation. I’m accepting it, and that’s life. And in life, sometimes you gotta man up and just accept it and move on. So whatever’s next, I don’t know, but we’ll see. Thank you to everybody who’s reaching out and supporting.”