What WWE Management Is Reportedly Telling Wrestlers In Other Companies

A new report suggests that WWE management may not be interested in wrestlers from other promotions.

There are hundreds of male and female wrestlers under contract to WWE, whether they compete on Monday nights on Raw, Friday nights on SmackDown, or Tuesdays on NXT.

In addition to that, there are shows like Evolve, the WWE ID prospects, and all the people who aren’t ready to be on TV yet but are working hard at the Performance Center to try to make it big in the biggest wrestling company in the world.

Another way for WWE to acquire talent is to sign people when they are free to join the company. Examples of that are Joe Hendry officially joining the company after several years with TNA, just like Jordynne Grace earlier in the year. There are also former AEW wrestlers like Ethan Page, Ricky Saints, Blake Monroe, and others who were signed after impressing over there.

WWE May Not Be Looking To Bring In Wrestlers From Other Companies

The WWE talent roster is overseen by Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque and his team, as it’s ultimately up to him to use a superstar on the main roster. In NXT, that responsibility goes to Senior Vice President of Talent Development, Creative, Shawn Michaels, who is a 2-time WWE Hall of Famer like Triple H. The two Degeneration X founders are surrounded by a huge team, of course.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that WWE is telling wrestlers in other promotions like AEW and TNA that they aren’t hiring many people from other places right now.

“We were told that of late talent from both TNA and AEW who have called WWE have been told that they aren’t looking at hiring new people. The idea is that they have so many in developmental, many of whom are ready that they don’t need new people.”

It was added that there will likely be some exceptions.

“This is not an absolute, and obviously guys the level of Jericho or Slater wouldn’t necessarily fall into that category.”

Chris Jericho is expected to return to WWE in early 2026, as his AEW deal reportedly expires at the end of the year. At 55 years old, Jericho is near the end of his career, so a retirement storyline could happen in WWE. Even though Jericho is under contract with AEW, he has essentially been benched since his last appearance in April.

As for Leon Slater, he is a 21-year-old X-Division Champion in TNA, but he also appears regularly on WWE programming under a working agreement between the companies. It’s likely that Slater will be WWE-bound whenever he’s contractually free to do so.