Ethan Page Bemoans Lack Of Opportunities In AEW
Ethan Page became the latest star to make the jump from AEW to WWE in 2024 and now he’s explained why he left Tony Khan’s company.
Ethan Page signed a three-year deal with AEW in 2021 after his time in TNA came to an end. Page was part of four pay-per-view events and featured in a tag team bout against Sting while also being part of a featured bout where he teamed with Scorpio Sky and Dan Lambert’s American Top Team.
However, opportunities did become more limited for the star and his latter days under contract saw him competing in Ring of Honor. And Page himself knew it was time for a change.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Ethan Page explained exactly why he decided to put AEW in his rearview mirror as he felt he wasn’t being given opportunities in that company:
It was time. I wasn’t getting what I magically got [in NXT], which is the opportunity to show what I bring to the table. This here, to me, is preparation meets opportunity, and the amount of preparation I got is a lot. 17, 18 years of preparation.
One Phone Call Got Ethan Page To WWE
Page then explained how his opportunity with WWE came to be:
I took independent dates and I was betting on myself to get some upward momentum back into Ethan Page. I’m very big on following trends and patterns. I could tell I was on a downward tick. There wasn’t anything that was going to change there, so I had to change my environment to change my momentum. Maybe I’m over-exaggerating, but close to 60-70 shows for the remainder of 2024, and I did a great show in Winnipeg.
On my layover from Winnipeg to Detroit, I was going to drive to REVOLVER in Dayton, Ohio, I got a phone call from a number that I didn’t have on my phone. ‘Hi, is this Ethan Page?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘This is so and so from the WWE.’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ ‘We’d like to offer you a contract. This long, this amount.’ I’m like, ‘This is not real.’ ‘That sounds fantastic.’ They hung up on me.
My phone rings, instantly, ‘Hi, this is so and so with WWE.’ ‘Wait, that phone call was real?’ ‘Yeah, you agreed to everything. We’d like to email it and have it signed.’ I’m calling my wife, ‘I think the WWE just offered me a job.’
Two weeks after signing with WWE, Ethan Page officially made his debut for the company when he appeared on the May 28th edition of NXT and attacked Trick Williams.