In recent months, the free agent market heated up between WWE and AEW, with notable stars being available for talks with the promotions.
Bidding war
The fight to sign talent has been going on since 2019, when All Elite Wrestling first launched, with WWE making attempts to keep talent from going to the rival promotion. At the time, they were serving out big money deals for five years to talent, only to release those talent from their contracts during the pandemic. Some went to AEW, while others signed with other promotions or later returned to WWE.
This talent war was back on display with Mercedes Mone, Kazuchika Okada, and Will Ospreay, who had a strong interest from both promotions, only for them to all sign with Tony Khan’s AEW.
Signings
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that “Khan offered more money than WWE, and WWE officials, who seemingly expected the lure of WWE and WrestleMania being enough of a deciding factor, ended up with it not being the case.”
As previously reported, Mone wanted to be paid on the same level as a top WWE star and is believed to be the highest-paid female star in wrestling right now.