RUSH is staying with AEW despite major interest from WWE.
In recent months its become an open secret that WWE held an interest in signing RUSH. Although the star has been with AEW for the past year, his contract was expiring and the sports entertainment giant was ready to strike.
However, on July 24th, the star revealed that he had re-signed with AEW.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed some more details about the entire process. Meltzer reiterated that WWE wanted RUSH and he would have initially featured in NXT. Despite this, WWE never actually made a former offer for the star once they found out that AEW had offered “insane money” to keep him.
“The belief is the new deal is multiple years. Regarding the WWE situation with him, the explanation from multiple people there is that they were interested in him for NXT and understood that they’d have to make him an offer much bigger than just about anyone in NXT (obviously not Gable Steveson but bigger than anyone else) because he’d get a big offer from AEW.
However, WWE never made an official offer because when they found out what AEW offered, they knew there was no way he was going to WWE. Someone in WWE called the offer “insane money.”
Why Did RUSH Stay With AEW?
Aside from the monster pay packet, it seems that RUSH had other reasons for staying with AEW. Posting on social media after the new deal was confirmed, Jose The Assistant wrote that the star had decided to stay because of the concern that Tony Khan had shown for his wife and newborn child.
Jose added that there were other offers but RUSH never seriously considered leaving.
Following the announcement, CM Punk said he wanted RUSH to be a “Collider.”