>>12281048People need to understand something: most of the ex-WWE guys AEW hires first hit it big on the indies and/or were in Ring of Honor or TNA for like a bajillion years. AEW strives to be a greatest hits compilation of indie shitters. All of these are indie shitters: Jon Moxley, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Samoa Joe, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Keith Lee, Malakai Black, PAC, even the latter-day Hardy Boyz. Edge is the one who stands out because he was a WWE corporate dude for so long. Even Jericho had Japan and WCW, and Christian had TNA.
But here's the important part. Most of the time, AEW isn't hiring ex-fed guys because they're ex-fed. Tony is hiring all the indie shitters who made it big so he can have a huge toy collection of indie hall of famers and rewrite indie history as the victor, the man who killed the scene, like Vince did after he killed the territories. He wants the history of AEW to be the history of 21st century non-WWE wrestling, just as the WWE absorbed the history of all the promotions they killed into their own.
