AEW's Tony Khan Pushes Back at Idea That Former WWE Stars Will Return to the Company Under Triple H

By Connor Casey

Vince McMahon is gone from WWE, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan are now the company's Co-CEOs and Paul "Triple H" Levesque is stepping in as the new Head of Creative and Head of Talent Relations. The sudden changes over the past week have given WWE fans a new tidal wave of optimism for the future of the company and its creative direction, but many are also starting to speculate about how the pro wrestling landscape will change as a result. Names like Johnny Gargano, Bray Wyatt, Dakota Kai and Sasha Banks have been trending as fans speculate whether or not they'll return to the company now that McMahon is no longer calling the shots and current AEW stars like Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson have been selected by some fans as former stars now destined to return WWE. 

AEW President Tony Khan actively pushed back against that idea during his latest Busted Open Radio interview, pointing out that many of those former WWE stars are now on multi-year contracts. He even confirmed both Adam Cole and Malakai Black (two former NXT Champions under Levesque's regime) are signed to five-year deals.

"I am a little amused that changes in the competition (McMahon leaving, Levesque taking over as WWE's booker), people think that it's going to magically change the landscape. ...Some of the narratives that I've seen (on Twitter) for the last week are really amusing me. I've got people signed here for five years and people think just because the CEO, the Chairman, the Head of Creative, those positions change in the competition, people that I have five-year contracts with are just going to magically switch teams? Good luck with that. Adam Cole is signed until about 2027 now. I wouldn't expect to see him go anywhere any time soon.

"...So just because these guys had some success under a previous administration, they're not going to magically be going anywhere else," Khan later added. 

Who in AEW do you think would make the jump back to WWE if and when their AEW contracts expire? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments and check out the lineup for tonight's AEW Dynamite below:

  • Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Rush
  • AEW Women's World Championship: Thunder Rosa vs. Miyu Yamashita
  • FTW Championship: Ricky Starks vs. Danhausen
  • Swerve Strickland vs. Tony Nese & Mark Sterling
  • Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia
  • Dante Martin vs. Sammy Guevara
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