Ex-AEW Star Pitched Unmasking To Tony Khan
A former AEW star claims they pitched Tony Khan on the idea of losing their mask while still part of the company.
In recent months, AEW lost both Penta and Rey Fenix to WWE, reducing the number of masked stars in Tony Khan’s company quite considerably.
But it was another masked star who pitched losing their face covering to Tony Khan, but it never happened. Fuego Del Sol was signed by AEW to great fanfare after finding a following as part of Sammy Guevara’s vlog. Now, Fuego is no more as the star has been reborn as the unmasked KJ Orso.
Speaking on Busted Open, KJ Orso explained that his apparent retirement video as Fuego Del Sol elicited a huge response in the wrestling business, but he was just taking the next step to show a different side of himself:
Like I said, I tweeted it out a couple of days ago that I’ve been plagued by the thought of becoming K.J. Orso for years. I pitched it to Tony Khan at one point to take my mask off in AEW. Just throwing things at the wall. I knew that, versatility-wise, I needed to showcase and show off a different side of me and I got text messages from every big name that you can imagine.
Hitting my phone up, ‘Is this really the end?’ ‘Thank you so much for all you’ve done.’ ‘We’re gonna miss you, man.’ ‘I hope this is all a work.’ ‘I hope this isn’t real.’ People at the top of the industry all the way to the bottom. So many colleagues that I’ve made over the years, so many fans. Just being truly grateful, even though they didn’t know what was coming. We were entering an unknown time. I feel like everyone had good things to say.
It’s kind of like seeing your funeral, being at your funeral all at once. But, we live in the crazy world of professional wrestling where everyone thinks that everything is a work and some people might have guessed that the next step was coming.
Tony Khan Had No Plans For Fuego Del Sol In AEW
As for why the unmasking never took place in AEW, Orso responded that he thinks Tony Khan never actually had any plans for him after he signed with the company:
I’ve said this in the past. I don’t think Tony Khan ever had any true plans for me. I think the fanfare and the respect I earned from the locker room almost forced his hand to signing me…
I am an outside puzzle piece that he just fits in when he wants. ‘You could do some stuff with Sammy. Cody Rhodes really likes you. When Cody wants stuff with you, we’ll do stuff with you and Cody.’ But there was no real plan for me ever. So I’m throwing a thousand pitches at the wall.