Former AEW Star Who Turned Down WWE Now Open To Move

WWE/AEW

Having turned down WWE in 2019, Mike Santana has revealed that he’d be interested in a move to the company after leaving AEW.

Santana was removed from the AEW roster page in early March 2024 with it later being confirmed that he had left the company.

In a recent interview on Insight, Santana revealed that WWE had offered both he and Ortiz contracts, saying:

“Oh, yeah. When our contracts were coming up with TNA there was interest with AEW and WWE.

“We had spoken to WWE extensively and they made it very hard for us to turn them down. But our thing was, so Cody was the one who hired us right and we had already before anything we had spoken a while back and we had giving Cody our word before, and our word is everything.

“So by that point, they asked, Hey, have you signed anything? And we’re like, no but we gave our word and we would like to stick to that.”

Santana would go on to reveal the logic for choosing to sign with AEW over WWE, stating:

“At the time we both had young children and we wanted to see them grow up and the schedule was much easier with AEW.

“Plus the opportunity to be part of history, be a part of something that was brand new and fresh and be at the ground level.”

Looking at his future in wrestling, Santana revealed that he would consider a move to WWE, but under his own terms, noting:

“I’ve had some discussions. I’ve been very open with everybody. Right now is just going where I’m going to be able to grow the most.

“I don’t want to just be another guy on the roster. I already did that,I want to be part of something, I want to do something special.

“Thankfully, I’ve been smart with money and I’m not hurting and I’m taking my time with things and you know, I just want to have fun.”

During the interview, Santana also discussed his final months in AEW, describing it as a “very dark time“.

He would also discuss his split from Ortiz after a decade-long partnership saying he holds “no hate, no grudge” towards the AEW star.

Transcript from Wrestlezone.

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• Mike Santana
• AEW
• wwe

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