Stokely Hathaway

The Firm (2022–2023)

Stokely Hathaway made his debut in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) at Double or Nothing. He appeared at the end of a match between TBS Champion Jade Cargill and Anna Jay, aligning himself with Cargill and establishing himself as a heel.^[23] In the lead up to All Out 2022, Hathaway started courting wrestlers such as Ethan Page, Lee Moriarty, Colten Gunn, Austin Gunn, and Big Bill to be his new clients. Hathaway and his clients then attacked the Casino Ladder match, taking out every competitor in the ring, clearing the way for the just-entering and masked Joker. At the end of the PPV's main event, the Joker revealed himself to be Maxwell Jacob Friedman, reuniting the latter. On the September 14 episode of AEW Dynamite, Hathaway revealed the name of his group to be "The Firm" and that they were MJF's "retainer team" helping him whenever he would need them. The partnership was short-lived when, on the October 26 episode, MJF would fire Hathaway for disobeying his orders not to attack AEW World Championship Jon Moxley and the Firm would subsequently turn on him.

Hathaway would simultaneously enter a long-term feud with Matt Hardy. On the October 12 episode of Dynamite, Hathaway revealed he bought Private Party’s contracts from LFI. During this segment, a challenge was made for AEW Rampage for a match between Ethan Page and Isiah Kassidy to free Private Party from The Firm's control.^[24] But if Page won, The Firm would acquire Matt Hardy's contract as well. On the October 14 episode of Rampage, Page won the match which Hardy and Private Party would have to join The Firm.^[25] Hardy and Kassidy would team with The Firm over several months, unsuccessfully challenging the likes of The Elite for the AEW World Trios Championship and JungleHOOK, the latter of which resulted in Hathaway having his first singles match in AEW against Hook in a No Disqualification match after Hardy failed to beat him for the FTW Championship, which Hathaway would lose.

On April 12, 2023 episode of Dynamite, Hardy and Kassidy were turned on by The Firm but were later saved by Hook and a returning Jeff Hardy.^[26] This would lead to the Firm Deletion match at the Hardy Compound, where the Hardy Boyz, Kassidy and Hook would defeat Hathaway, Page, Moriarty, and Bill, with Maxel Hardy hitting a Swanton Bomb on Hathaway.^[27] This would effectively disband The Firm, with the Gunns allying with Jay White and Juice Robinson of Bullet Club Gold and Hathaway being named to the Board of Directors of Ring of Honor alongside Jerry Lynn.^[28]

Managing Kris Statlander (2024–present)

After spending the summer of 2023 as one of ROH's authority figures, Hathaway returned to a managing position in early 2024, winning the grudging acceptance of Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale after a campaign to "Give Stokely a Chance" that featured Cameo messages from Kurt Angle^[29] and George Santos.^[30] The partnership solidified by Revolution, with a win over Skye Blue and Julia Hart at Zero Hour, and a post-match declaration that they were "family.", turning Hathaway face in the process.^[31] On May 26 at Double or Nothing after Nightingale was defeated by Mercedes Moné, Hathaway berated Nightingale until Statlander pushed him over, seemingly terminating his role as their manager. Moments later, on the ramp Statlander attacked Nightingale and aligned herself with Hathaway once again, revealing the prior events to be a ruse. As a result of the attack, Hathaway once again turned heel.^[32] At All In in August 2024, Nightingale and Tomohiro Ishii defeated Hathaway and Statlander in a mixed tag team match.^[33][34] After Statlander defeated Nightingale at All Out, Hathaway and Statlander parted ways with the kayfabe reason for the split being Statlander had invoiced Hathaway a large sum of money to make up for physical therapy, emotional damages and losing her shot at the CMLL World Women's Championship, though this was never acknowledged on AEW programming.^[35][36][37].