Wrestler Appears on AEW and WWE Programming on the Same Night

By Liam Crowley

The forbidden doors across the professional wrestling industry have loosened their locks. It has become commonplace for wrestlers to split time in multiple promotions, as top stars like Jon Moxley reigned as both AEW and GCW World Champion at the same time while tag teams like Aussie Open have competed for Impact Wrestling and NJPW simultaneously. These crossovers seemingly exist everywhere but WWE, as the global wrestling powerhouse only featured its exclusively-contracted talent on its programming. That said, WWE's crossovers are something of a one-way street, as it has allowed stars like Karl Anderson and Shinsuke Nakamura to wrestle for NJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH, respectively, in recent months.

As WWE slowly cracks open its forbidden door, it seldom answers knocks from fellow American giant AEW. Contracted AEW talent like Chris Jericho, Bryan Danielson, and Paul Wight have appeared on WWE TV via pre-recorded messages, but there has yet to be any WWE stars that show face on AEW programming.

Occasionally, exceptions are made in the form of local talent. That's exactly what went down on both Monday Night Raw and AEW Dark: Elevation earlier this week, as independent wrestler Manny Lemons showed up on both programs.

Lemons wrestled a pre-recorded tag match with partner Atiba against Isiah Kassidy and Matt Hardy on AEW Dark: Elevation which aired just before WWE's flagship show went on the air. During Monday Night Raw, Lemons popped up in a live capacity, as he worked as a security guard in the opening segment.

This move is referred to as "pulling a Rick Rude," as the WWE Hall of Famer infamously showed up on both Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro on November 17th, 1997.

Lemons is just the latest to pull off this move, as Katie Arquette, Kayla Sparks, and Kelsey Heather all did simul-appearances for AEW and WWE in 2022.

While it won't be two different shows, contracted stars from both AEW and WWE are set to wrestle on the same broadcast this week: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17. AEW's Kenny Omega challenges Will Ospreay for the IWGP United States Title while Karl Anderson defends his NEVER Openweight Championship against Tama Tonga.

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