Jake Atlas (real name Kenny Marquez) was seen a promising young star when he first signed with WWE back in 2019. Unfortunately, he was released from the company in mid-August, and after a pair of matches for GCW and Ring of Honor he announced he was retiring from the business while citing mental health reasons. However, Atlas popped up on this week’s edition of AEW Dark: Elevation and beat Serpentico in just over two minutes. AEW president Tony Khan then announced the following day that Atlas had signed with the company.
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“Congratulations on winning your tryout match last night, Jake Atlas! What a great @AEW debut, and now @kennymarquez, I’ll see you Tomorrow night in Newark at the debut of #AEWDynamite on @TBSNetwork! Safe travels, and…Welcome to the team!” Khan wrote.
Atlas explained his initial decision to depart from wrestling via Twitter back in mid-September. He wrote, “I’m not concussed or ‘banged up.’ I simply just can’t keep going anymore. Take your mental health seriously, both for yourselves & for each other, because we only have one life to live. Thank you to anyone who did support me for 5 years. I didn’t do much, but what I did was fun. I’m stepping away from wrestling completely right now so please don’t ask me to do interviews/appearances. I’d like my privacy to be respected. At 26 years old, I’ve got my entire life ahead of me & I’m choosing to explore completely different industries to find my passion again. Unfortunately, it was unhealthy for me the entire time. I just learned how to hide it really well. I hope that friends & fans I’ve made alike continue to support me no matter what. I have major anxiety just having done that, please be sensitive. Thank you.”
The Atlas signing marks the first talent acquisition for AEW of 2022. In an interview with ComicBook last week, Khan reflected on reuniting The Undisputed Era faction by signing Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and, most recently, Kyle O’Reilly.
“I really do value that,” Khan said. “It reminds me in sports, say in football, you play against an opponent, and they have great players. And if you could sign those players that used to compete with you, and give you trouble when you were game-planning. If these were the people you game-planned against and knew that these would be the toughest matchups, then to bring those people onto your team, those are some of the best acquisitions you can make. And to be able to add Adam Cole and Bobby Fish, and now to have Kyle O’Reilly make his debut on AEW Dynamite this week, I think it’s very special. It’s that much more special to do it in Daily’s Place, the home of AEW, where we’ve competed against those guys (WWE) so much. And to have that act, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish come in against one of our top homegrown acts, Orange Cassidy, and The Best Friends, it’s a big, big deal here. It’s very symbolic, it’s very fitting. I’m very happy JR (Jim Ross, returning from his battle with skin cancer) is going to return to the broadcast booth, and he’ll be there to call that match. It should be great.”
