Max Caster is unhappy with the hiring process that AEW has been utilising for a number of years.
With significant financial backing from Tony Khan, a major TV deal and star power, All Elite Wrestling has become the second-biggest promotion in the world. With this being the case, more top wrestlers have an alternative place to work while still being paid accordingly.
Although fans want to see former stars from WWE still on TV and utilised to their fullest potential, such as Jon Moxley or Bryan Danielson, not everyone sees the benefit. With limited TV time and a massive roster, if someone new comes in then that is one less spot for the existing talent, something The Acclaimed member is very aware of.
Back in September 2023, multiple WWE stars were released from their contracts, including Shelton Benjamin. With many citing Benjamin as someone who was criminally underutilised during his time in WWE and still in great athletic shape at 48 years old, some fans were optimistic that The Gold Standard could become All Elite when his non-compete expired. While many wished for this to be true, Max Caster hit back at their wishes with the phrase “We don’t want him!” among many other cryptic messages on social media. Elaborating on his statement, Caster’s issues are not with Benjamin but with free agents in general.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Caster expanded on his initial post about Benjamin and declared that AEW didn’t need anyone else due to the already talented locker room:
“We don’t want him [Why?] what’s he gonna do, take up my TV time? This is one thing I learned when I was getting signed to AEW. I got a call from QT Marshall, who I love and respect because he’s a great wrestler and he’s very honest. One of the most honest guys I’ve ever met, if not the most. He called me up. And he’s like, ‘Tony wants you to come in.’ I go ‘Is this a joke?’ I don’t know. He goes, ‘Look, I’m a wrestler. I’d prefer it if you didn’t come here and work because you’d be taking a spot that I want.’ And I go, Oh, that was some real sh*t. I respect that guy. Ever since then, he’s always kept it on that level with me so I gotta keep it on that level with everyone else.
Every single free agent that comes up in professional wrestling, fans want to go, ‘They’d be great in AEW.’ We only have so much TV time. Some of that needs to go to me. I don’t want all of it. I’m not selfish, but I’m the best. But if people start calling for Shelton Benjamin, or Motor City Machine Guns or whoever, it doesn’t matter, and not to single anyone out. My sentiment is, why would we want them? We already have the best roster, you already have the best wrestler alive.
If you want anyone to come in and do whatever role they’re going to do, I bet I can do it better. I bet Anthony could do it better. I bet we have a guy on there that’s not even getting used on our roster that could do it better. So what are we really doing? We’re just bringing in stars that were made [in] other places to do what, less work ourselves?
I’ll work for that. If you want me to fill someone’s role, I can work and do that. It’s not going to be overnight. It’s not going to be okay, Max is now this guy. No, but I could work there. But it’s insulting to me as a veteran, a top wrestler, and one of the most popular wrestlers that fans will go well, we want this other guy now. Why? You have the best, literally the whole roster, you have the top of wrestling.”
When asked if he had anything against Benjamin, Max Caster responded that it was nothing personal but he did not want anyone else to join him on the roster:
“Not at all. I will say right here, great wrestler, and I respect him a lot. But why would I campaign for anyone to join the company when we already have the best wrestlers? I’m here. Put me in that spot and it’ll be great. But if I’m gonna sit here and go, Wow, yeah, we need more on this roster. No, we don’t.”
“I’m Insulted”: Max Caster
Although Caster may have issues with it, AEW has continued to sign free agents as the likes of Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada have made their way to the company in recent months. When asked how he felt when new talents get signed, Caster said the following:
“I’m insulted. I really am. I want to see them prove themselves. And, you know, talking about the people that we signed recently, I think Will Ospreay has proved himself. Give him all the credit in the world. He’s an amazing wrestler. Okada, I think once he’s situated in the country, and he’s on TV every week, we will see.
But that doesn’t take away from how great of a wrestler he is. He’s here, we got to live with it. But if you had asked me before we signed him, Max, do you think Okada should be here? I go ‘If you want, but I can do that for you.'”
Also in the interview, Caster stated that Adam Copeland is another recent signing who has proved themselves.
When it was brought up that the outside stars could be better for the company as there is a possibility it could increase ratings and business, Max Caster remained sceptical:
“They could, I don’t know if they have. Wrestling and TV is a lot about how you make people feel. But not just once, over a long period of time. So these guys can come in and there’s some general excitement when they first show up. But are they going to sustain that? We have to wait and see, but we’ve worked so hard to get to where we are in the company from literally ground up, homegrown, purely.
Then to just have guys who were stars somewhere else, did their whole career somewhere else come in, and now they’re perceived to be on top of us, it’s an insult to me. I’m speaking for me, I don’t want to speak for my partners or anything like that. It’s an insult to me because of all the work we’ve put in.
If other people help along the way, sure. But not many of these guys have ever campaigned to wrestle me and Anthony. I think there’s a reason for that. One because they don’t want to get embarrassed via me on the microphone. And they know that we are younger and hungrier and ready to go and they want to be in their comfort zone, wherever they are. I get that, but we have the tendency to bring people outside their comfort zone.
So I again, take that personally when me and Anthony are the number one thing in wrestling period. And then none of the top wrestlers are saying we can actually better AEW if we put on a top-level fight with two of the top teams. FTR was the only one team that agreed to wrestle us and that was great. Again, I respect them for that. But there wasn’t that clamour from everyone in the locker room, like, put me with Acclaimed, none. And I again take that very, very personally, because that shows that people are afraid to try and help the company as a whole.”
During the same interview, Max Caster opened up about his controversial raps.
Despite Caster’s protests, 2 more ex-WWE stars have signed to AEW.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit the source and leave a h/t to Inside The Ropes.