AEW President Tony Khan
All Elite Wrestling
Once upon a time, when WWE made its latest round of releases or chose not to renew a wrestler‘s contract, the assumption was that they’d eventually land in AEW. Jon Moxley, Mercedes Moné, Andrade El Idolo (twice), Miro, Bryan Danielson, Adam Copeland, Christian Cage—the list goes on. A sizable portion of AEWs roster still consists of former WWE talent.
But AEW has evolved beyond simply becoming the destination for ex-WWE stars. The roster is filled with homegrown wrestlers, former NJPW talent, and wrestlers who have been with the company since its inception. Even with four and a half hours (including overruns) of weekly television, theres simply a lot of talent competing for a limited amount of television time.
That created an interesting discussion after WWEs latest wave of releases in April, which included Aleister Black, Kairi Sane, Zelina Vega, the Wyatt Sicks and the Motor City Machine Guns. Around the same time, The New Day also parted ways with WWE.
Tony Khan was asked by Roar Around The Ring about potentially signing more talent, and his response suggested AEW has become far more selective than it was in its early years.
“I think that if you look at how many great wrestlers there are in AEW and across Wednesday Night Dynamite and Thursday Collision, these have so many great stars wrestling every week. Different wrestlers lined up, uh, fighting for top spots. So, there‘s a lot of competition in AEW right now. And so, we have to be very considerate about who we sign and about who comes in to compete because right now there’s already so many great wrestlers competing for these spots on TV and on PPVs.”
Since Khan made those comments, the Motor City Machine Guns debuted on the special Thursday edition of Collision in Detroit, proving theres still room for exceptional talent. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are one of the most accomplished tag teams of the last 15 years, making them difficult to pass up regardless of how crowded the roster already is.
The same could eventually be true of Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston. According to Fightful Select, their contracts expire shortly, and they‘re expected to join AEW once they’re able to. If that happens, it may be the biggest WWE-to-AEW crossover debut available today, while finally making a long-awaited dream match against The Young Bucks possible.
Outside of signings on that level, though, it‘s becoming harder to envision AEW bringing in every notable WWE release the way it once did. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either, as wrestlers have legitimate alternatives in CMLL, TNA, NJPW, MLW, NWA, and elsewhere.
The days of expecting every major WWE release to be accompanied by an “Is All Elite” graphic may simply be coming to an end, as AEW becomes more selective about the talent it brings in.