AEW Facing Tough Decisions With Flooded Free Agent Market

AEW’s Tony Khan is facing some tough hiring decisions this week. Several released WWE superstars including big names like Ember Moon, Keith Lee, and Karrion Kross became free agents just days ago. Khan has promised that there would be huge free agent signings coming soon. Some of those free agents will inevitably be brought in to become All Elite.

There are also several Ring of Honor wrestlers who were let out of their contracts and are now looking for new homes. Dragon Lee and Bandido are among the two most popular and promising. Danhausen was also among this group. With an already crowded locker room, Khan will have some tough decisions to make.

On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the landscape. With tons of wrestlers out there, Tony Khan may want to avoid signing people just to sign them. There are some very special talents available that would be slam dunks if both parties were interested.

“I know that the Keith Lee thing is… I don’t know if it’s a done deal, but it’s certainly been talked about. Which could mean Mia Yim. I don’t think that she’s a game changer nor do I think they shouldn’t hire her. It’s just her. Athena, who I would hire. I would, you know, for every reason. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hired her at all. I would almost be surprised if they don’t.

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And then, Morrison’s pretty soon. You know, yeah. Morrison’s good. And there’s others that, you know, again, they hired Tony Nese. I’m sure it’s not at a big money price, but they still hired him. So, you know, it’s just a question if Tony thinks… You know, and Tony Nese is a good wrestler, but to me, they have so many good wrestlers that hiring someone because they’re a good hand…

I mean, look, they got Sydal and all of these guys that are very good in the ring that you can put in those positions and everything like that. They’re filled with guys like that. If I was in the position he was in, I would only hire special people. I’d hire the Briscoes. I think that they’re special as a team, even though, my God, they’ve got so many tag teams that are good… Bandido, Dragon Lee, those guys I’d hire in a heartbeat. Especially Bandido, because he’s young and… Well, Dragon Lee’s young and charismatic, too, but Bandido, he’s super charismatic.”

Tony Khan has been collecting major wrestling talent like baseball cards over the last couple of years. There is now more available at one time than ever before. We’ll have to wait and see which wrestlers from this huge free-agent class will join AEW and which will find work elsewhere.

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Transcription by Ringside News