New AEW Signing Had Talks With WWE, Chose AEW

Published: Mar 30, 2025 by Liam | Last Updated: Mar 30, 2025 by Liam

Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.

New AEW Signing Had Talks With WWE, Chose AEW

The newest signing to AEW reportedly had a WWE tryout with interest from the company, but he made the decision to join AEW instead.

During tonight’s March 29 episode of Collision, former NJPW star Kevin Knight made his AEW TV debut in a match against Jay White.

After White scored the win, he got on the microphone to praise Knight, saying he was pretty sure we’d see more of Knight in All Elite Wrestling going forward.

It was soon confirmed that would indeed be the case, as Tony Khan took to social media to officially announce Knight had signed with AEW.

After that announcement, more details have now emerged on interest in Knight from WWE.

As reported by PWInsider, Knight took part in an invited WWE tryout at the Performance Center “several weeks ago”, and the company was interested in signing him.

However, “in the end”, Knight made the decision to join AEW.

Cory Hays of PW Nexus corroborated PWInsider’s report, adding that WWE had “conversations” with Knight and “would’ve liked” him to join NXT, but he chose to sign with AEW for more money.