Why Ex-WWE Champion Chose Not To Join AEW
A former champion in WWE explained why he didn’t want to sign with AEW.
Cedric Alexander was with WWE for nearly a decade after starting in 2016 and being released in February 2025.
During his career in the company, Alexander held the Cruiserweight Title and was a three-time 24/7 Champion. In addition to that, Alexander was a Raw Tag Team Champion alongside Shelton Benjamin while both men were part of The Hurt Business along with MVP and Bobby Lashley.
After his release, it was reported that The Hurt Syndicate would push for Cedric Alexander to join them in AEW, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Alexander debuted in TNA in the summer of 2025, and he’s been there ever since.
Alexander recently joined TNA’s top stable, The System, and is one of the top heels in the company, so he’s doing pretty well without his Hurt Business buddies.
Joining AEW Didn’t Interest Former WWE Superstar Cedric Alexander
In an interview with Busted Open Radio, Cedric Alexander made the point that while Lashley, Benjamin and MVP are at the end of their careers in pro wrestling (they are in the late 40s/early 50s), Alexander still has a lot of years left so he made the choice to not work with The Hurt Syndicate even though they are friends.
“Bobby [Lashley], Shelton [Benjamin], MVP, they’re all legit close friends of mine. So I was very happy for them that they got to bring the group back and finish their story, their careers the way they wanted to.
But I was also like, ‘Man, what about me? I was a part of that group, too. I helped make that group what it was.’ But at the same time, when I had the opportunity to go to AEW, I was looking at it in a sense of, for them, they’re finishing their careers with the Hurt Business. I still got another 10, 15 years to go.
So I kind of want to do my own thing and just be my own man for a while and not be linked to, ‘All he did was Hurt Business stuff.’ I was a self-made man before I came to WWE and CWC. So I would like to be able to say, ‘No, this was my choice, something I did for me.’”
Cedric Alexander has yet to win a championship in TNA, but he is a big part of The System with Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers, and Bear Bronson as they look to dominate the TNA-AMC era.