Paul Wight says there’s no animosity and no dirt to share in his move to All Elite Wrestling, he wanted to explore some new opportunities and says Vince McMahon even wished him well.
Wight was one of the guests on the AEW Revolution post-show media call and was asked about how he came to join AEW. Wight said McMahon actually called him the day his signing was announced and wished him well in his AEW career, and thanked him for his years of service with WWE.
“It just came down to contract negotiations and opportunities. Let’s face it, and over 20 years at WWE I have done everything there is to do and WWE. I needed a fresh start. For me, I think Vince understands that and understands that for me, as a talent, this was the opportunity to do that. But, you follow the rules. I couldn’t reach out to Tony Khan or AEW while I was still under contract. I came to terms with a mutual dissolution of services when I left WWE. There’s no anger. I needed the freedom to pursue different opportunities and when that contract came to an end,” Wight said (via Fightful) that was the thing where I took the leap of faith and hoped that my reputation and the industry in the work that I’ve done, would earn me a meeting with Tony Khan and just to be able to talk to him and hope that he would understand that I can be an asset for AEW.”
Wight says he met with Khan at his office and they talked about his plans for AEW. Wight says he wanted to get into color commentary and try and provide experience like Gorilla Monsoon or Jesse Ventura did prior to him, but he also wanted to work with new talent and work in a new environment. Wight also explained that was a bit nervous to leave WWE because of how many years he’d been there but he’s grateful for how everything has worked out.
“Believe me, leaving WWE was a little bit scary because I had so much tenure there and so much experience and had basically already paid every due that I needed to pay in WWE. To leave that stock and to put a lot of faith in yourself and say, ‘hey, if you’re really passionate about this and you want to do this,’ then you have to put your big boy pants on and give it a shot,” Wight said. “I’m very grateful and very thankful that it all worked out.”
