Former WWE Superstar Revealed as the Male Joker in AEW's Owen Hart Cup

By Timothy Adams

AEW revealed the identity of the Joker in the Men's Tournament Quarterfinal match of the Owen Hart Cup during Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. Johnny Elite, aka John Morrison, made his AEW debut when he walked down the aisle to face Samoa Joe, while Dr. Britt Baker is set to square off against the Joker in the Women's side of the Tournament later tonight. Speculation swirled around former WWE Superstars Cesaro (Claudio Castagnoli) and Ember Moon (Athena) being the surprise entrants by AEW President Tony Khan. Two other matches in the Owen Hart Cup feature Adam Cole vs. Jeff Hardy, and Kyle O'Reilly vs. Rey Fenix.

Tony Khan teased the Jokers for the Owen Hart Cup during a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio Wednesday afternoon. When Mickie James tried to have Khan drop a hint about either wrestler, he responded with, "You are a very educated student of the sport of pro wrestling. I'm sure if you really put your thinking cap on, I bet you can guess who these two are."

Athena spoke very highly of AEW in an interview with Chris Van Vliet earlier this month, saying, "I was seeing everything going on at AEW and I was like, 'That looks fun. That looks like what I thought I was going to do.' For a while, we couldn't even talk about it backstage because they were like, 'You shouldn't be watching the competitor.' I was like, 'How do you expect us to outshine them?' It was different because I wasn't watching for film. I was watching because I was envious of what was happening there. I would text Dustin (Rhodes) on occasions and he would respond back, 'We sure are having fun over here.' I'm like, 'I see that you're having fun, Dustin! How are you, how is life? Don't rub it in.' Dustin was one of those people that, when I was on Raw and SmackDown and still trying to figure out my identity within that new roster, he was the only one who would sit there and give me character advice. 'You need to do this and that. F— what they say.' That's Goldust. That's the ultimate character. My man survived throughout everything. He took such an interest in my character-work when no one else would. I saw him and my friend Leva (Bates) is like, 'I'm having a great time over here.' To see genuinely how happy everyone was."

Unfortunately, Athena tossed fans a curveball by announcing on a Twitch stream Wednesday that she wouldn't be on Dynamite because it's a four-hour drive from her home in Garland, TX, to Houston.

Tommaso Ciampa added another twist into the mystery when the former NXT Champion posted a photo with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae, captioning the photo, "Hanging out with a couple of jokers." Bother Gargano and LeRae allowed their WWE contracts to expire and are free agents. While Gargano has teased the possibility of joining AEW in the past, LeRae is only three months removed from having her first child so the odds of her getting back in the ring so soon are slim. 

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