4 forgotten WWE segments that featured AEW stars
AEW has several former WWE wrestlers on their roster. They have even been World Champions and performed at The Grandest Stage of them All, WrestleMania. Their WWE stints are well-known and even legendary. But in stark contrast, some AEW wrestlers have had short-lived WWE stints in minor roles and squash matches that have been long forgotten, only to crop up on the social timelines when some hardcore fan reminisces and posts about it.
Here is a list of four wrestlers who have had small-time roles in the WWE storylines, and some even ended up in squash matches.
#4. Scorpio Sky was part of Daniel Bryan's Anger Management Classes
Daniel Bryan has had an impactful career in the Stamford organization and carved a niche for himself in AEW. Fans consider his storyline with Kane one of the most unique and entertaining, and a specific segment in that storyline had current AEW wrestler Scorpio Sky gear up as Harold, one of the members of Bryan's Anger Management classes for Kane during the Team Hell No storyline.
In the storyline, Kane and Daniel Bryan were forced to attend anger management classes, and Harold was part of the classes between 2012 and 2013. He later appeared at SummerSlam 2013, as one of the fire-fighters in the Bray Wyatt/Kane match. The former and 2-time AEW TNT Champion signed with the Jacksonville-based company in 2019 and was the inaugural AEW World Tag Team Champion with Frankie Kazarian.
#3. Ricky Starks has jobbed to a former, future WWE Champion
Ricky Starks is immensely popular today but has been away from AEW since March when he and Big Bill lost the Tag Team Quarter-Final match against Top Flight. Sometime in 2012, he was a jobber in the Stamford-based company and jobbed to Jinder Mahal. Mahal won the WWE Championship in 2017.
One eagle-eyed fan spotted Ricky Starks in the Russian soldier's entourage that got Rusev into the arena, during the Bulgarian wrestler's bone-chilling entry at WrestleMania 31.
In 2018, Starks played a minor character in a script that had him portray the role of a US Marshall who came into the ring to arrest Roman Reigns. That script ended up having Roman Reigns and him in the same ring, during Reigns' rivalry with Brock Lesnar.
The former, 1-time FTW Champion has come a long way since then, and there's some serious gossip about him signing with WWE. He has revealed how he trained with the infallible Undertaker, and his friendship with the current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes is well-known.
#2. Prince Nana was once in a squash match for the company
Prince Nana is the darling of the wrestling audience now, and his dance moves have captured their imagination, but even he has come a long way from his initial days, one of them included being squashed by Steve Blackman, a 6-time WWE Champion in 2001.
He also got a try-out with the Stamford-based company in 2013. Nana has been associated with ROH since 2002 and with AEW since 2023.
#1. MJF was an enhancement talent for the company
MJF is one of the most famous professional wrestlers and has worked hard to achieve this status. He started his career in 2015 and has had a few brushes with WWE. He was an entrant in the show Tough Enough in 2015. In August 2016, he played a security guard pushed by Samoa Joe at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn II.
Again, in 2016, he stood as a paint dummy when the company wanted someone to try out Finn Balor's Demon look, and MJF revealed what went on.
"They wanted to paint me up like Finn Balor because they were trying to figure out what his paint should look like for the show, so they painted me up. They took they took a photo of me and Finn Balor comes into the room. He was like ‘Yeah this is good’ and I was like ‘This is wild’. Like what a what a wild concept…Quite literally, [I’m] the paint dummy for Finn Balor!" he said.
Wrestling is surely a fascinating industry, and anecdotes like these add all the needed spice to it