Several Former WWE Superstars See AEW As A Step-Down

Since its inception on January 1st, 2019, All Elite Wrestling has signed quite a number of wrestlers, but have only released a handful of talents as they handle talent releases quite differently than the WWE because the WWE suddenly ends the talents’ deal without even a notice at times, while AEW usually lets the talents’ contract expire and simply not renew it except that of CM Punk’s.

Several former WWE Superstars joined the rival promotion following the expiration of their contracts, while others were let go and the most notable former WWE Stars that has joined AEW include “The Ocho” Chris Jericho, “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy), current ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland, Miro, Adam Cole, Jon Moxley and many more.

Dave Meltzer stated on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that a lot of former WWE Superstars who now work in All Elite Wrestling see the promotion as less than compared to the WWE and as a step-down even though they were pushed as top stars in AEW. Meltzer also stated that other stars in All Elite Wrestling have given the impression that they can’t wait to return to the WWE once their deals in AEW is up and if they receive an offer from WWE as they see the company as the major league, while some stars in the WWE asked for their releases from the promotion last year after Vince McMahon retired and Paul “Triple H” Levesque was put in charge of creative.