New AEW Hire Reveals Why He Left WWE

AEW

A former WWE executive has revealed details of their departure from the company and new role at AEW.

Mike Mansury left his role as WWE’s Vice President for Global Television.

He worked for the company from 2009 until he resigned from the company in 2020.

In December 2022, it was announced that AEW had hired him and he would serve as Senior Vice President & Co-Executive Producer.

On The Sessions with Renee Paquette, Mansury spoke of his decision to leave WWE after just over a decade, saying:

“I knew that there was more that I was capable of but I had already excelled at everything they allowed me to do at that point.

“I was looking for that new challenge and even if it was something that were outside of the scope of what people would have defined as my potential, it would have been nice to be able to kind of spread wings a little bit and take on a new challenge so, once I kind of realized I was in the lane that I was in and the path to the destination wasn’t really gonna change or even progress that much, I knew it was time to make a change.”

Mansury inferred that he was set to be the successor to forty-year WWE veteran executive Kevin Dunn

Dunn has been Executive Vice President of Television Production since 2003 and has been on the WWE Board of Directors since 2008.

WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair has recently commented that Dunn “is not going anywhere”.

Mansury suggested that Dunn was the obstacle, with WWE not being able to move forward with him until they figured out what Dunn’s future entailed.

He recalled that he had decided to leave WWE in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing:

“I remember I had gone back up to Stamford and they had offered me the opportunity to rescind my resignation and I was beyond appreciative of it but you know, I told them, I said, ‘Look, I know we’re heading into uncertain times but if I don’t do this, I’m never gonna do it and I need to.’”

He would go on to reveal how he arrived at AEW, saying that there had been talks whilst he was in Singapore working for ONE Championship MMA.

Mansury felt it wasn’t the right time to join AEW, believing that they already had a strong team.

Things would change when the veteran wrestling producer Keith Mitchell retired from the business and left AEW.

“I don’t think they knew Keith was gonna wind up retiring a couple months later.

“But a lot of folks on the AEW side that we had known from WWE had spoken to Tony [Khan] a lot and had talked to me about coming down and just checking things out and just saying hello.

“But ultimately, you know, ONE was the new home.”

A new round of discussions would take place over the summer of 2022, with Tony Khan and Chief Legal Officer Megha Parekh leading the negotiations.

They expressed to Mansury that AEW was ready to take things to the next level.

Mansury also felt that he had unfinished business in the industry.

Mansury concluded:

“I don’t know that I left wrestling feeling fulfilled. I think when I left the WWE, I was burned out at that point and I was frustrated.”

Mansury also discussed creating an “anti-WWE” product whilst working under Vince McMahon.

Transcript from SEScoops.

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• Mike Mansury
• tony khan
• AEW
• wwe

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