AEW Star Unexpectedly Thanks WWE Publicly

One AEW star has surprised many people by publicly thanking WWE.

WWE has been aggressive in its approach towards AEW since Tony Khan’s company began in 2019. 2025 saw a series of counter-programming moves take place, which left All In Texas squashed between three WWE shows over the same weekend in July.

But despite that, a current AEW champion has a huge reason to thank the sports entertainment giant.

Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, AEW Women’s Tag Team Champion Harley Cameron explained how WWE granted her start in the ring in the United States:

I will say thank you to [WWE], because thanks to them, I have my green card. Thanks to them, I learned to wrestle; they helped me with wrestling training for Flatbacks.

WWE Passed Up Signing Harley Cameron & AEW Swooped In

Cameron was never officially signed by WWE and says big changes in the company might have been the reason why:

I believe they went through a transitional stage where, in their office, certain people were released from the company, they went through some big changes, and fate just didn’t lead me in that direction.

In the interim of not knowing what was going on, [I] had an opportunity to be at AEW Dark, then I had another opportunity there, and was offered the contract with AEW.

I don’t know whether interest was lost in the journey but AEW found me and I’m very lucky they did… I was in communications back and forth, but it’s not like I got a contract offer. That was my initial first goal—was definitely going that direction.

Harley Cameron also reflected on her place in AEW history after she, alongside Willow Nightingale, became the first stars to hold the AEW Women’s Tag Team Championship. The Babes of Wrath will put that title on the line at Worlds End against Mercedes Mone and Athena.