by Hanley! » Jan 15, '19, 5:24 pm
It's a balancing act. We'd all love to see under-pushed talent from WWE shining in another promotion. But if AEW want to present themselves as a fresh alternative, they can't load their roster up with WWE jobbers. A promotion filled with Tye Dillingers is unlikely to explode either commercially or critically.
I'd say they should focus on picking up some wrestlers that smart fans tend to love already, but who have been going under the radar due to bad booking or lack of television time. The Revival are the most obvious signees in WWE. Cesaro is just a body on the roster in WWE, but he could become a headline star in a new promotion without much trouble. Samoa Joe would be another fine choice. And there are a whole host of talented performers from NXT that they could look to steal, who came up through the indies and don't yet have WWE midcard-for-life stink on them.
I'm sure they'd love to grab a couple of main event names too, and Styles would be the pick of the lot. His contract is due to come up soon, and though I don't think they'll manage to sign him, it would be massive for them if they could. Nakamura and Balor are other names that I could see doing a lot better in AEW than in WWE.