AEW President Tony Khan has gone in-depth on what he looks for when trying to sign talent for his promotion.
When Khan got AEW started back in 2019, many wondered how the roster would shake out. As it turns out, AEW has signed a mix of premier talent on the indies, internationally, and formerly of WWE.
He’s even signed some standout athletes who never had a wrestling background.
Tony Khan’s Eye For Talent
AEW star Swerve Strickland had Tony Khan as a guest on his Swerve City podcast. During his appearance, Khan laid out what he’s in search of when doing some scouting.
Athletic Background
“Well, there’s a lot of things. First of all, when you look at their body of work coming in, sometimes you get athletes, like Satnam Singh is a great example or Jade Cargill, where they didn’t have prior experience in pro wrestling, but they were great athletes, actually both of them played basketball at a high level. I thought they were worth a gamble.”
Khan said it’s rare to sign someone who does not have prior wrestling experience. AEW does not have a performance center or developmental system, like WWE.
In-Ring Experience
“It’s a different business model. There are a lot of great people, but for us, we kind of pick our spots when it comes to that thing, because we’re not as much about centralized training all week long.
Khan named Swerve Strickland as someone he saw wrestle elsewhere.
“I had seen a lot of your matches before you came in,” said Khan. “Some other people might not have as much experience as you and might not have had as much success, or really might not be as far along or as developed or as good. There’s other people where it’s hard to track them down.”
Fans have taken notice of AEW’s approach toward building young stars such as MJF, HOOK, Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, and Lee Moriarty. Those names all had some level of wrestling knowledge before being signed to AEW.
As Khan mentioned, Jade Cargill was someone who came in as an athlete outside the wrestling business. Cargill did receive a WWE tryout back in 2019.
She ended up training at the Face 2 Face Wrestling School before transitioning to the Nightmare Factory.
Quotes via WrestlingNews.co