We’ve heard the accusations often enough now, so who did WWE tamper with from AEW?
According to Tony Khan, on several occasions including last year and more recently, some from WWE reached out to talents under AEW contract and worked to determine how interested they were in coming back to WWE.
To be clear, this was alleged to have entirely been talent that had been released by WWE because of their COVID cuts, when Vince McMahon was making decisions.
And, the alleged tampering happened around the time when McMahon was forced out and Triple H took over.
Not that we would condone tampering, but you can understand the contact. After all, a lot of talent impacted by those cuts were so-called “favorites” of Triple H.
So now that we’ve heard Tony Khan level those accusations, which are pretty well believed to be true, just who did WWE want back?
Who Did WWE Tamper With From AEW?
There are probably others not mentioned here, but two that are pretty much certain?
William Regal and Swerve Strickland, as confirmed by Fightful.
Regal, of course, has since been let go (per his request) and did return to a behind the scenes role within WWE.
His release had some contingencies, one of which being some restrictions on how soon he could show up on television.
But, Regal wanted to be there for his son’s development, so it was worth it.
Strickland, a former member of Hit Row, did not want to return. When approached, he referred the WWE official to his lawyer.
It seems that one or both (and maybe others) made Khan aware that WWE was putting out feelers.
When he first caught wind of it, Khan made a massive stink about it, threatening massive legal action because of the conversations.
Thus far, at least as far as we know, nothing has come of that.
Khan recently added that this all happened while he was at the hospital with his mother, and that this is what made things personal for him.
My two cents, not that anyone asked…
There is tampering…and there are friendly conversations to gauge one’s interest in a new home. And perhaps lines get blurred, but these conversations happen all the time, and in every major sport.
Some other pro sports effectively have a period of time known as “legal tampering”.
As rapidly as things came together, there are surely some that figure WWE tampered with Jade Cargill, or that AEW did the same with someone like Adam Copeland, especially considering so many were so certain he was going, while he was still very much under WWE contract.
And, as some astute fans have pointed out, Khan himself likely did a bit of tampering at the beginning of AEW, as several early signings were still under contract with other promotions, like New Japan.
Darby Allin even had to buy himself out of a contract in order to become a part of AEW.
This is not to make excuses for anyone. If you want to be furious that a competitor is doing it to you, you need to make sure you aren’t returning the favor…or else you don’t have much of a leg to stand on.
