Josh Woods is reportedly signed to AEW on a tiered status, having appeared for both AEW and ROH as of late.
The one-time ROH Pure Champion made a surprise appearance on Wednesday’s Fight For The Fallen edition of AEW Dynamite, laying out Keith Lee backstage and seemingly forming an alliance with Tony Nese and Mark Sterling.
Fightful Select has now reported that Josh ‘The Goods’ Woods has signed a contract with the Tony Khan-helmed promotion that will see him on a tiered deal. Woods has allegedly been on this deal for “about a month”, with a handful of AEW matches to his name already.
Former AEW EVP Cody Rhodes has previously explained what AEW’s tier contracts mean on the Unrestricted podcast, noting how the company operates with five different tiers available:
“‘Agreed to appear’ is tier zero, meaning you will get a bonus, and Tony [Khan] is super generous. If you ask some of these extras what they’re making down there…my dad would’ve lost it. It’s the COVID era, they have no other work because there are no Indies. Tier zero is a signing bonus and exclusivity to us in terms of, we get a first option on you and we guarantee you X amount of dates. The exclusivity is case by case.
The goal is, you don’t want to pay someone who has agreed to appear and keep giving them their weekly versus tier one, which is our base contract agreement. We have tier one, two, three, four, and tier Jericho. Everyone is given a choice of things that are important to them, different pieces of the pie.”
Josh Woods first appeared for AEW during the Dark tapings on 3 December, losing to Shawn Spears. He’s wrestled a further five matches, currently sitting on a record of 3-3, and last wrestled as recently as the 16 July tapings.
Fightful Select also noted that “not everyone” who worked ROH Death Before Dishonor is signed to any sort of deal with AEW. Specifically, several former ROH stars were reported to still be free agents; this may include the likes of Dalton Castle, Cheeseburger, and The Righteous.