AEW is becoming the hottest wrestling promotion in the world.
Founded by wrestler Cody Rhodes and his friends Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, the group set out to bring back true professional wrestling.
With the help of businessman Tony Khan, AEW’s launch has been a success.
Recently, they just signed a new TV deal with TNT that will keep them on the air for four more years. Plus, there’s talks about bringing another AEW show on the channel.
AEW is viewed as WWE’s top competitor. Not only is the promotion stealing most of WWE’s viewers, but also some of their former stars.
Chris Jericho is considered one of the greats in the world of wrestling.
He spent many years working on and off for WWE before finally leaving for good in 2017.
Instead of hanging up his boots, Jericho continued to wrestle and joined NJPW, where he worked with Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes.
When AEW was announced, Jericho revealed that he had signed with the company.
Jericho was AEW’s inaugural World Champion when he defeated Hangman Adam Page at All Out.
Jericho has been one of the many stars to held build AEW. His heel, rock star gimmick along with his catchphrase “a little bit of the bubbly,’ has become a hit with fans.
Together with his new stable The Inner Circle, Jericho is asserting his dominance over the rest of the roster.
Matt Hardy became a huge star in WWE with his brother Jeff. Whether he was competing in tag matches or embarking on a singles career, fans loved Matt.
When he left the company in 2010, he’d later go on to sign with Impact Wrestling where he would introduce fans to his new Broken gimmick.
Despite the craziness, Matt’s new persona became a hit with audiences.
Of course WWE took notice, and when Matt’s contract with Impact was up they made him a new offer.
Yet, Matt’s return to WWE would be lackluster due to the mishandling of his Broken gimmick.
Growing upset with his lack of creative control, Hardy’s contract expired on March 2, 2020.
Two weeks later he made his debut on AEW Dynamite, with his newly restored Broken gimmick.
Wrestling fans will remember that Brodie Lee worked in WWE as Luke Harper.
The Luke Harper character was a member of The Wyatt Family, which was led by Bray Wyatt with Harper and Erick Rowan as his followers.
After the group disbanded, Harper found it difficult to achieve success with his singles career.
Dismayed with WWE’s booking of his character, Lee asked for his release and began making plans to return to the indie scene.
His release was granted in December 2019, but he had a 90-day no-compete clause.
Lee’s clause expired the first week in March, and on March 18th he made his AEW debut when he was revealed to be the mysterious Exalted One.
During his WWE days, Jon Moxley wrestled under the ring name Dean Ambrose.
As Dean Ambrose, he was a member of the popular stable The Shield. However, after the group’s break up, he failed the achieve the same success as Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
He’d grown frustrated with the creative direction of his character and was tired of Vince McMahon’s goofy ideas.
In January 2019, it was revealed that he wouldn’t be signing a new contract.
Many were unsure if the news about Ambrose’s departure was real or a work. But as the April date of his release neared, everyone knew it was real.
Just minutes after his contract expired, a Twitter video was released indicating his return to his Jon Moxley roots.
A few weeks later, Moxley showed up at AEW’s PPV Double or Nothing where he attacked Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega.
A year after his debut, Moxley has quickly become one of AEW’s top stars.
He had a high-profiled feud and match with Kenny Omega. Then at the February 2020 PPV Revolution, he beat Chris Jericho to become the new AEW World Champion.
