9 AEW Stars that were rejected by WWE
Some have criticized AEW for relying on former WWE Superstars as their leading act but in the last few months, that has changed. Thanks to Cody, The Young Bucks, and Chris Jericho, there has been a transparent thought process of getting young up and comers over with the mainstream audience on AEW Dynamite.
This has been the highlight of the company. Their plan has always been to get over the younger stars as soon as possible and they have succeeded on some level. Sammy Guevara, Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, Jurassic Express are very much over with the audience and do get a pop for all the right reasons.
Over the last six months, several of these stars have proven that they can hang with the best while others are a work in progress. It's also true that some of these stars did try out for WWE at one point or didn't make it past their developmental system.
Some even had matches on NXT with little to no traction after that. In a sense, they were denied by WWE.
Here are 9 AEW Stars that were rejected by WWE.
#9 Penelope Ford
Back at the end of 2018, Ford did try out for WWE. It's unclear why it didn't work out or why she didn't get further than this. It should be noted that AEW was announced in January 2019, and it was confirmed that she and Joey Janela had indeed signed with the company.
While several things might have changed between the tryout and her signing, it's still unclear if WWE did or did not call her back beyond the tryout. It's possible that WWE officials were not impressed and didn't sign her.
On the other hand, her time in AEW has been interesting, especially with her pairing with Kip Sabian. The two recently announced their engagement, and things are looking up for them both personally and professionally.