We gotta remember that AEW must be hurting just as much, if not more than WWE. I doubt they have the cash to hire more, if any, talent.
Logic says that It doesn't make financial sense for any company to go on a hiring spree in the middle of the type of issue the world is in now BUT, if Post wrestling is to be believed, then WWE (for as big as they are) make the vast majority of their income from their TV deal. AEW don't tour outside of their TV shows so then it stands to reason that they would be making the vast majority of their money from the TV deal too. They're still providing TV content therefore they're still making that TV money...
When Turner owned WCW they were also paying some of the contracts directly. They may be able to swing the hiring of a number of these guys IF their partners at TNT believe they'll benefit the company.
All of that said, do we really think there's anybody here that could improve their product?
Gallows and Anderson would improve the tag division as it's currently missing a "monster team" and both have personalities... Anderson also started the gimmick that led to the Elite ("too sweet me hoot!") so I could see them signing.
Rusev? Maybe. Again he's a big dude of the type they don't really have but he's more a Cody than an Omega when it comes to actual wrestling (or how we've seen him wrestle in WWE at least). Rowan is an even more negative extreme of Rusev, BUT he has a connection to Brodie Lee and I could see him in the Dark Order... but benefit vs cost wise, they'd basically be paying money to have a guy perform a role anybody on the roster could perform.
If I were AEW looking at that list of releases, there's only five I'd consider - in this order:
- Zack Ryder. People know him, most people believe he was wasted in WWE so he has that inbuilt sympathy of people wanting to see him do well, and he was the first to really use social media, which is the foundation that built AEW. He suffers from the WWE Copy & Paste syndrome that a lot of their workers do but I think he'd work well in AEW. You'd have to assume that he'd be massively motivated too.
- Lio Rush. Look at what AEW have done with Sammy Guevarra and then realise that this guy is already ahead of where Guevarra is now in terms of wrestling and talking. A genuine star in the making.
- EC3. A talker. All promotions need talkers and he's a really good one. Absolutely wasted by WWE twice and probably more divisive than Ryder would be BUT, importantly, he's already shown commitment to moving on (see the video below)
- Karl Anderson - he's been all over the indys (NWA, ROH, PWG) and then went to New Japan where he won the tag-titles with several partners BUT more importantly, they thought highly enough of him to put him in the finals of the G1. Dude can wrestle and can talk and could do both tag and singles. Not as big a prospect of becoming a star as those above him on my list but a VERY solid addition to any roster.
- Luke Gallows. Comes with Anderson, can work the monster style well and seems to be a genuinely funny dude that never seems to get chance to put that across on TV. Comes in as a team with Anderson but may flounder if that team was split.
The only other name I would consider would be
Kurt Angle, problem is he can't wrestle anymore and seems to be in jolly grandpa mode all of the time. The could use him as a Jack Tunney "president" character for announcing big matches on the tron and strapping the belt around champions waists - something I'd like them to have in order to lift the attention away from the Elite both wrestling and running the show, but AEW probably already have a better candidate for that role in Arn Anderson..
That EC3 Video
