5 WWE legends who could follow Paul Wight to AEW
Earlier this week, the WWE Universe was hit by monumental news. Former WWE Superstar, and one of the largest athletes to ever enter the wrestling ring, Big Show decided to leave the company and join rival promotion AEW.
While Paul Wight’s (Big Show’s real name) role in AEW is not clear yet, it is expected that the WWE legend will enter the ring to have a few matches before deciding to move to a backstage role.
With Wight’s departure from WWE, the door is now wide open for many other loyal WWE legends to make a change before it’s too late. AEW has managed to pull some big names such as Sting and Wight in recent months, and fans could see some more legends jump ship from WWE to AEW.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five WWE legends who could follow Wight into AEW before retiring from the ring.
#5 Former WWE Champion CM Punk could join AEW
CM Punk did not spend as many years in WWE as many of the other legends on this list. However, Punk had a unique following that helped him become one of the biggest names in the industry. Punk’s golden run in WWE came in the 2010s where he became one of the best World Champions of the decade.
Dubbed “The Best in the World”, Punk has been away from the wrestling ring for some years now. While it seems unlikely that he will return to the ring for WWE, he could decide to join rival promotion AEW at some point.
WWE legend Mark Henry discussed on the Sirius-XM radio program, Busted Open Radio, that Punk would fit perfectly into AEW’s business model and possibly benefit from what they have to offer.
"I think that [All Elite Wrestling] is tailor-made. It’s like, here you go, you wanted a platform, you wanted an equal footing with the marketing and the management, and the ownership, here’s equal footing. You get to have a conversation, and not only do you have the conversation, if you come up with ideas and stuff, you get credit for those ideas. You get more time, and if you deserve to be in the main event, then you deserve to be in the main event regardless of what else is going on. Sometimes you want to be put first, that’s the way it is in business: when you’re at the top of the game, you want to be put first."
Punk could fetch a good contract if he decides to join AEW at some point. His pull-factor can greatly benefit AEW, and he could get back to doing what he loves doing in the ring. Former WCW star Konnan revealed that Punk wanted an 'astronomical amount of money' to join AEW.
“I do remember when you know, I was negotiating with AEW — they were telling me about him. They were telling me that he was asking for like an astronomical amount of money. That they really wanted to work with him.”
If the negotiations do pull through at some point, fans could watch The Best in the World perform on AEW sooner than later.