Outside of Cody Rhodes, WWE hasn’t managed to land any big former AEW stars in the free agency market over the past couple of years. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, there’s a reason for that. Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio this week that a few AEW talents are interested in making the jump to WWE, but the company won’t even discuss offers until wrestlers are no longer under contract. This is apparently because of Major League Wrestling’s (MLW) antitrust lawsuit against WWE.
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“WWE is very, very leery because of the MLW lawsuit, so they’re not making… if that MLW lawsuit wasn’t there, WWE — and it’s not just these guys (the Elite), there’s other guys that this relates to, that have interest at least in hearing from WWE and in one case interested in going to WWE — and WWE has been uncharacteristically not aggressively trying to steal talent. Unless somebody’s contract is actually over, because of that MLW lawsuit,” Meltzer said (h/t WrestleTalk). “If it was two years ago in this situation, would they not go in there and go, ‘Hey, we’ll offer you millions and millions of dollars, make the move when your contract’s up’. Right now I don’t think that they would do that. They might, but I don’t think so. That lawsuit… it’s like, if they do something wrong and it gets out, that’s not a good thing for that lawsuit, and that lawsuit may end up being nothing, but an antitrust lawsuit, there’s a lot to that that could be very scary.”
Meltzer then explained that part of the caution comes from WWE’s ongoing attempt at a merger with The UFC under Endeavor. While Vince McMahon will remain in power after the merger, he’ll technically have a boss in Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel.
“And plus, it’s no longer the defiant Vince, it’s Ari Emanuel,” Meltzer continued. “He’ll flip out if they do something to make the lawsuit worse. And I don’t think they want Ari flipping out and going like, ‘You’ve gotta get rid of whoever makes that offer’. Put it this way, whoever makes that offer, if an actual offer is made, and it comes out and it gets to Ari, Ari will never fire Vince, like he will never fire Dana, but there will be a scapegoat in that, which is why nobody should ever do it, or should do it and make sure it doesn’t get out because anything that makes that lawsuit worse is not something that Endeavor wants. It’s not something that WWE wants either, for that matter.”
AEW Blood & Guts 2023 Results
- FTW Championship: Jack Perry def. Hook
- Dr. Britt Baker def. Kayla Sparks
- Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament Finals: MJF & Adam Cole def. Daniel Garcia & Sammy Guevara
- The Golden Elite (Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, The Young Bucks, Kota Ibushi) def. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takeshita & Pac (Blood & Guts Match)
WWE SummerSlam 2023 Card & Rumored Matches
- World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
- Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar
- Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler
- Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Yet to Be Confirmed)
- Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus (Yet to Be Confirmed)
- Ricochet vs. Logan Paul (Yet to Be Confirmed)
- Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre (Rumored)
- SmackDown Women’s Championship: Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair (Rumored)
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. TBA (Rumored)
