5 AEW Stars you may not know wrestled in WWE
Before joining AEW, a few stars had wrestled in WWE. Nonetheless, many wrestling fans might not remember their WWE appearances.
The AEW roster is full of former WWE champions and legends like Paul Wight, Sting, and CM Punk. The latest names to join the AEW family are former NXT Champion Adam Cole and former WWE Champion Bryan Danielson.
In the past few years, a few other AEW Stars have also stepped inside the WWE ring. However, their WWE stints were very short. Some of these current AEW Stars wrestled only once in WWE before continuing their careers elsewhere.
Despite failing to become WWE Superstars, some of these wrestlers have found success in other promotions. Today, they are well-known AEW Stars.
Here are five AEW Stars you may not know wrestled in WWE.
#5. AEW Star Rebel
In August 2019, Rebel signed a contract with AEW. The 43-year-old joined Tony Khan's company to become a hair and makeup stylist for the women’s division. The licensed cosmetologist later became an in-ring competitor in AEW, too.
Just a few months before joining AEW, Rebel wrestled in a WWE ring. She teamed up with Amber Nova to take on Io Shirai and Kairi Sane on NXT in January 2019. Shirai and Sane came out victorious. Rebel, who competed under her real name Tanea Brooks, never wrestled again in WWE.
The experienced wrestler has performed in several promotions since kicking off her career nearly a decade ago. In 2013, she joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (Impact Wrestling). She spent three years in TNA before moving to OVW, where she spent another three years.
Between 2017 and 2019, the 43-year-old moved between OVW, Impact Wrestling, and World Wonder Ring Stardom. Rebel made her AEW in-ring debut in July 2020. She competed against Big Swole on AEW Dynamite but came up short.
Rebel's first match in AEW came after more than a year of absence from in-ring performance. The idea to get her back in the ring came from Cody Rhodes, AEW's executive vice president. In an interview with Sunday Night’s Main Event, AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker revealed how Rebel's in-ring return came about.
"When the pandemic first started, we had to do a lot of vignettes at home. Tony Khan had the idea to start doing Rules of Being a Role Model, so we were filming in the dental office. Rebel, who was a makeup artist for AEW, she was on the set to do my hair and makeup. Then, it was Cody who wrote her into the script and said, 'Hey, let’s play around with it and call her Reba,'" Baker said.
Last Friday, Rebel teamed up with Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker to face Kris Statlander, Riho, and Ruby Soho on AEW Rampage. Rebel's team lost the match.