How Many Current WWE Superstars Have Contacted AEW About Possibly Leaving WWE?

Since All Elite Wrestling first launched in 2019, the company has signed its fair share of former [...]

By Connor Casey

Since All Elite Wrestling first launched in 2019, the company has signed its fair share of former WWE talent. Wrestlers like Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho, Dustin Rhodes and PAC were some of the first to confirm they were on the roster (Rhodes is even one of the executive vice presidents) while other stars like Jon Moxley, Shawn Spears, Brodie Lee, FTR, Jake Hager, Matt Hardy and Matt Cardona all gradually made their way over to the company. During a recent mailbag segment on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer was asked about how many current WWE Superstars have reached out to AEW at least once to see if they had any interest. According to Meltzer, that number is much higher than you might expect.

"Roman Reigns is not going to AEW," Meltzer said. "Of all of the guys, virtually everybody in WWE — including guys who have claimed different — at one point or another have called people in AEW trying to see what they can get or have had an interest. Roman Reigns and there's a couple of others but Roman Reigns is basically, of the top guys, he was the only one who never even inquired so he ain't going anywhere."

The one major former WWE star AEW hasn't had any luck with is CM Punk. Rhodes explained why those negotiations broke down in an interview with TalkSport.

As far as the CM Punk negotiations go, everyone heard the famous 'he got a text from us'. Yeah, of course there were negotiations and he did ask for a great amount of money and Punk is worth a great deal of money But you also have to — and this isn't speaking to Punk specifically, this is speaking to recruitment and what we've learned in wrestling in general — a lot of people think 'these wrestlers are running this wrestling company'. These wrestlers are doing everything they can to run the creative, the brand and the marketing and things, but there are some very smart and fiscally conservative people who surround us and flank us because this isn't my money. At all."

And I don't want a situation that happened with WCW or Jim Crockett promotions where we think we're flying so high that we can do anything. No — this is a business. And we have to turn a profit," Rhodes continued. "The fact we were able to turn a profit as a company within only two years of being alive, very few other companies within wrestling — it's real limited, you can count on one hand who's been able to do that versus who has bled money — but in that situation the negotiations, I don't think they ever got too serious. Doesn't mean they won't one day, but they never got entirely too serious. I think there is a good relationship there. I think I have a good relationship with Phil, I believe Tony does too and I'm not sure really when it comes to him, it's not so much about the money. It's about are you interested in doing this?

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