AEW had several surprises in store for fans during this week’s Dynamite, and one of the biggest kicked off the show. That would be the reveal that Switchblade Jay White is All Elite, though at one point it seemed like he could have also signed with WWE. A new report from Fightful Select reveals details on when White signed with AEW and what sources say led to the deal with WWEnot progressing further. The report states that Jay White signed with AEW ahead of WrestleMania 39 and that WWE sources were aware that he would not be signing with the company by then.
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It appears WWE had interest in White when his free agency was approaching around Wrestle Kingdom, and in the following weeks, WWE was even confident that they would land him. Triple H and William Regal both apparently showed interest, but a deal ultimately didn’t happen, and there is a perceived reason why.
WWE higher-ups said that WWE “failed to communicate properly along the process”, and also noted that White joining AEW over WWE could have been due to Vince McMahon’s return and the lack of main roster hires since then. During that time there were communications between White and WWE as well as White and AEW.
Things did progress on the WWE side, to the point where there were tentative creative plans made for White within the company. Higher-ups knew time was ticking on getting the deal done, and there were some in WWE as of last week that hoped WWE might still be able to bring him in. That obviously didn’t happen, and now White is officially All Elite.
That wasn’t the only surprise Tony Khan had in store for AEW fans, as Khan announced AEW’s first United Kingdom event, fittingly titled AEW: All In London at Wembley Stadium. The event will take place on Sunday, August 27th in Wembley Stadium, a stadium with a capacity of 90,000, and it could very well be AEW’s biggest show ever.
“The UK is one of the most important markets in professional wrestling, and AEW is coming in hot as the number one wrestling company in the UK on television,” Khan said in a press release shortly after the announcement. “We want our debut in London to be epic in scale, and there’s no better venue than Wembley Stadium to deliver what I know will be one of the greatest events in AEW’s history. This April also marks 100 years of Warner Bros. and 100 years of Wembley Stadium – it’s a fitting time to come together for ‘AEW: All In London at Wembley Stadium.’”
Are you excited for Jay White in AEW, and what do you want to see him do next in the company? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
