What makes some former WWE performers work in AEW while others don't has to be one of the biggest questions Tony Khan asks himself any time a new round of releases comes down from Titan Towers.
Would a performer like Andrade, who traveled the world and worked everywhere from Lucha Libre AAA to New Japan Pro Wrestling, appreciate the freedom of being able to parlay his star power into bookings across the world? Or would his connection to Charlotte Flair, a certified first-ballot WWE Hall of Famer, make AEW feel like the minor leagues? Or how about a performer like Samoa Joe? Would he embrace being back on the indies where he cut his teeth as a member of Impact Wrestling or Ring of Honor? Or would the lighter paycheck, when coupled with a more variable workload, prevent Joe from putting his full attention into his craft?
Turning to his podcast on the night before the night before Christmas, Dave Meltzer attempted to quantify what makes some ex-WWE guys successful in AEW and others fail on Wrestling Observer Radio, and the results are actually quite fascinating.
“And Punk… it kind of disappoints me in a way, was certainly one of them when it seemed like you could see that they considered the other guys (WWE) the big time and not where they were,” Meltzer said. “And when you have that attitude, it’s just different. Whereas with Jericho and Jon Moxley, and you know Jericho’s got great relationships with WWE and he could have gone back, no problem. Moxley could have too but Moxley really doesn’t want to – Moxley’s kind of a different character. And Danielson will be interesting with what he does next.”
“But Danielson and Moxley and Jericho, what they have in common is that other WWE people have and this includes Sasha is that they worked all over the world and in the case of Moxley and Danielson more than Jericho, (is that) they didn’t see WWE as this dream thing – they wanted to be pro wrestlers and their idea of pro wrestlers is what they started pro wrestling doing, running around the indies. They would go to Bryan Danielson and be like ‘oh this is great, you never experience anything like this before’ and he would reply ‘I wrestled at the Tokyo Dome.’”
“But for some of these other guys, it’s like they only know WWE and in WWE they were losing and losing and losing, Miro and Malakai Black, and Andrade is another one who was losing and losing and losing and then they come to AEW and they’re winning and winning and winning, they’re rarely losing but somehow they want to go back.”
Is Meltzer correct? Is the biggest difference between performers who work in AEW who came from WWE really their mindset? Sure, Miro, Black, and Andrade all want to return to WWE, or at least did at some point in 2022, but the latter two worked plenty of matches on the indies before debuting in The Fed. The three success stories Meltzer has acknowledged, Moxley, Jericho, and Danielson, are also booked incredibly well in AEW and are on television all the time, versus Miro, Black, and Andrade, who were all mid-carders with no real shot at the World Championship belt. Either way, this piece of data is probably worth considering for Khan moving forward, especially with two top female stars, Sasha Banks and Mandy Rose, rapidly approaching free agency in early 2023.
Jon Moxley explained why he decided to re-sign with AEW.
Speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated back in October, Moxley explained why he re-signed to AEW when, in theory, any wrestling company in the world, even WWE, would happily sign him up for a long-term contract. For Mox, it's all about his love of wrestling.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere else,” Moxley says. “It’s the best job in the world, and I’m very lucky to have it. In AEW, all I worry about is wrestling. That’s my focus, and that’s a joy. I love storytelling, I love promos, I love wrestling. I love coming up with ideas for other people, I love learning. For me, it’s a perfect fit.”
It's hard to argue with Moxley's sentiment because he really has been working in AEW like he's a former GCW Champion as opposed to also a member of The Shield – arguably the most successful faction in WWE over the past two decades. Moxley credits this appreciation for AEW to the DIY way he came up in the industry, which included mailing out whs tapes of his matches.
“I’m a good gap between the old generation and the new generation,” Moxley says. “I come from the Les Thatcher system, so I understand paying your dues and respecting veterans. I’m also old enough to know what it was like to go to the post office and send stacks of my videotapes—ones I had to make—to promoters. I was also there for the advent of YouTube, and I was one of the first indie wrestlers to gain a buzz doing that. My friend had a video camera and a laptop, so I would cut promos every week on my indie shows and used YouTube to my advantage.”
“When I started in 2004, there was WWE and some other indies, but there wasn’t much money in them. There was a big gap in between when you first started and actually having any success in the business. Now there are so many tools and so many promotions, and such a great fan base, and wrestling has evolved so much. It’s a great thing for the fans and the wrestlers. No one is shoving a script in your face telling you what you have to say. I wish I had this opportunity in AEW when I was 25. I hope the young people at AEW understand how cool this place is.”
While AEW isn't for everyone, and, to be fair, WWE isn't either, it's clear Moxley has found his home in professional wrestling, and Khan is clearly happy to have him.
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