Top AEW prospect wants to go for titles, wrestle CM Punk

With his contract already secured, Nick Wayne is soaking up his time on the indies before going "All In" on a prolific run in AEW.

Though he's never appeared in the promotion's ring and is largely unknown to fans of Tony Khan's company, Nick Wayne is very much a member of AEW.

After wrestling a stunner with Christopher Daniels for the DEFY Interim World Championship back in February, Wayne was surprised in the ring by none other than Darby Allin, who was trained by his father, Buddy Wayne, and offered a developmental contract with AEW that would officially kick in when the then 16 year old turned 18 in 2023; a contract he happily accepted. While the path to AEW isn't completely clear for the third-generation star, as Wayne still has to complete high school to officially qualify for the contract, the independent marvel who has wrestled the likes of Will Ospreay, Swerve Strickland, and Brian Cage for promotions like GCW, DEFY, and Black Label Pro is AEW bound and will be working matches for the promotion in no time.

Fortunately, Wayne is already getting his AEW to-do list in order, and he's assembled a veritable murderers' row of opponents he wants to wrestle and championships he wants to wrestle for.

Nick Wayne is taking down names ahead of his AEW debut.

Despite his expansive workload on the indies and in high school, Wayne found time to talk to Eric Novak on the All Real Wrestling Podcast about his life, his indie run, and most interestingly enough, his future in AEW, as you can read below via a transcription from Fightful:

AEW, since that's where I'm heading once I turn 18, I would love to spend as much time as I can there. I would love to do everything there is to do in AEW. Whether that be winning their World Title, their [TNT Title], or their Tag Team Title, I want to do everything. I want to wrestle their top guys, [Bryan Danielson], CM Punk, I want to do everything there is to possibly do in AEW.

Also, a very big one that I'm starting to do, or that I've been doing these past few months, but I think it'll definitely mean a lot more when I'm older, is giving back to pro wrestling and give back to the younger guys in this business. I really want to just influence the younger guys — I know, I'm kind of like the very youngest right now, being 17. But once I'm older, in my 20s and 30s, I would just love if I could coach or teach or just be able to influence the younger generation of wrestling and, really give back, like what people now are doing with me. I would love to give back to the newer generation coming.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Mr. Wayne. AEW rewards wrestlers for how they work, not who their father is. There's no way Tony Khan is going to immediately give you the rub and let you wrestle for championships mere weeks after graduating from high school, no matter how many matches you've wrestled in GCW and DEFY. TK doesn't just hand out huge opportunities to fresh-faced stars, not unless said wrestler is named Konosuke Takeshita, of course.

Fortunately, Khan actually has spoken on Wayne in the past and sounds pretty darn excited to see Buddy's son in an AEW ring, thanks in part to the endorsement of Darby Allin, as per Wrestlinc Inc.:

Darby and I are very close,” Khan said. “I think we're like twin sides of the same coin. There's probably nobody I have less in common with that I have a better connection with than Darby. He is absolutely the person that brought Nick to my attention. He's trained with Nick since he was a very young kid and I told him ‘I think when he's 18, I would love to have him.' I really took Darby's word for it. So that's my guy, Nick Wayne, when he's 18 years old, I can't wait for him to step into the ring for us.

And I give all the credit to Darby for spotting him. Obviously, you know, firsthand, they trained together for a long time. And Darby is a fixture in Seattle. I believe we have the two most popular wrestlers out of Seattle in recent memory, or I should say out of the Washington area, with Darby Allin and Bryan Danielson. I would imagine they're the two most popular wrestlers in the area, and they're both very adept at scouting wrestlers.

Welp, there you go; if you're looking for wrestlers to buy futures stock in – if there is such a thing – bet big on Wayne, as his hype train doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon.