Ex-AEW Star Turned Down Contract Extension
A former AEW wrestler has explained why he decided against signing a new deal with the promotion.
Brock Anderson worked for AEW for just over two years from when he signed in early 2021 until his departure in October 2023 when his contract expired. Anderson’s final AEW match took place in August 2023.
As the son of WWE Hall of Famer and former AEW Producer/Coach Arn Anderson, there was a lot of pressure on Brock. While he did wrestle in some big TV matches, his AEW career never took off.
Since departing AEW, Brock hasn’t signed with another major wrestling promotion, yet he still wrestles on the independent scene.
In a virtual signing with K & S WrestleFest, Brock Anderson spoke about when he felt like he wasn’t going down the right career path in AEW.
“About two years in, probably. Hindsight’s 20/20. It was a brand-new company. They’d only done a handful of TVs before COVID. Then they went into COVID. So in one sense, it was the best place for me to be because it wasn’t like I could be out on the indies, they weren’t running. So at least I was there.
When I was there, Cody was there. We were at Jacksonville, at Daly’s Place. During the TV days, they would have all the young guys out there, and some of the boys [would be] watching, and they’d be like, ‘That was good, this was bad.’ In that respect, it was good.
Like I said, it was a newish company and we were in the middle of a global pandemic. We didn’t know if we were going to develop a training center or any of that, it was early. You’re just like, ‘okay, we’ll keep doing this and see what happens, [we’ll] see how they bring us along.’
Once we got out of the pandemic, we were rocking and rolling, it was just TVs, and that school never came. After doing those five-minute Universal matches, you can’t really get better doing that. It’s too short of a time, you don’t learn how to wrestle.”
Brock Anderson Left AEW So He Can Learn More About Pro Wrestling
As the discussion continued, Brock explained why he said no when AEW wanted to give him a new deal.
“After about a year and a half, I was like this is…it’s great, I loved everybody there, I appreciate the opportunity, Tony [Khan] and everybody. It’s just, where I was, I needed to be somewhere where I could actually get repetitions and learn the business.
They sent me another, they wanted to redo the current deal I was on, but it was not enough, so I was like maybe we just don’t do this and we go our separate ways.
I think it was the best decision I’ve made. If I just stayed there and worked the five, six times a year that I was guaranteed, I would never have the mentor I have sitting to my left [CW Anderson] and all the knowledge I’ve soaked up in that short amount of time.”
Prior to working for AEW, Brock’s dad Arn Anderson was a Producer in WWE for about 18 years. Arn has appeared on WWE TV since leaving AEW, but it’s not known if WWE will bring in Brock as a wrestler.