On Wrestling Observer Radio (subscribe here), Dave Meltzer spoke about the early success of AEW. This comes after selling out their ‘All Out’ PPV in only 15 minutes.
According to Meltzer, there is a big amount of WWE stars who have contacted AEW about potentially working for them.
Here is what he said (h/t to Ringside News for the quotes below):
“It’s not something that [Vince] saw coming. I think that they were ready to you know, beginner’s luck — I’m sure that’s what they were going with — beginner’s luck, but here’s the other thing too. It’s not just, ‘Okay they’re doing good, but we can both do good.’ We know that, but the key is that — I know from cause [WWE] was just in town [San Jose] and you know everybody wants out.”
“I mean not everybody wants out, that’s not fair — Roman Reigns doesn’t want out — but, the amount of people who have contacted AEW would blow your mind and there were plenty of people — the thing also is that there are people who are counting down the days, but you know — okay, the Usos did sign to stay and AJ signed to stay, but you know when this happens that changes the game.”
“Because #1 is WWE and WWE is offering people a lot of money to stay, ridiculous I mean more money than these guys have ever made in their lives, but even with that there are guy who have told me including guys in AEW now that they cannot believe they turned the offer down, but they did. I know people in WWE now who are not interested in signing again and they cannot believe the amount of money they’re turning down the money, but it’s like if you’re miserable and you’re not being who you want to be and maybe you can make a little less, but it’s more than you’ve ever dreamed about making in the business, maybe you can make more if you become a star.”
“I’ll put it this way if you’re a guy — I don’t wanna name names because they’ll you know — but let’s just say that you’re a guy and you were offered $500,000 for five years from WWE and let’s say you know you’re going nowhere there, you’ve been there, you know how they book, but you can make that money or you can go in and you can be — you can go [to AEW] and you can have confidence that you can be a superstar and even if you make $350,000 in the beginning if this thing takes off then you’ll make more, but when your contract is up in one case you’ll be a jobber for life. You’ll be ‘Dolph Zigglered out’ your career is done — I don’t wanna say ‘done’ cause Dolph Ziggler is doing okay right now, but still he never was what he should have been or you could be Jon Moxley who is hotter than he’s ever been in his whole life and [WWE Superstars] can see it.”
Which WWE stars could you see making the jump to AEW? Let me know in the comment section below.
On a related note, check out the 7 WWE stars who I think could realistically make the jump to AEW.