Nick Wayne looks forward to his looming arrival in AEW.
Wayne, 17, is widely viewed as one of the most buzzworthy stars in the independent wrestling world. He has worked for DEFY Wrestling and Game Changer Wrestling, among other promotions. The young star has faced renowned competitors like Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita, and Alex Shelley. Darby Allin handed Wayne an AEW contract at a DEFY Wrestling show in February 2022. Wayne was 16 years old at the time, and the terms of the deal stated that he wouldn’t be able to start with the company until he graduated high school.
During an appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Wayne discussed his contract and made it clear that he can’t do any in-ring work for AEW until he turns 18, which will be in July 2023.
“As of right now, I can’t do any in-ring work with AEW until I turn 18, which will be this July,” Wayne said. “So from now until then, or I guess from last February until July, it’s just a learning experience, trying to learn TV wrestling and how AEW does things around here.”
Wayne then stated that he won’t get paid by AEW until he turns 18 in July. When asked about his potential AEW debut, Wayne stated that there’s not a firm plan yet, but his goal is to keep learning and evolving. He made it clear that he wants to keep facing the best in order to improve.
“We don’t necessarily have a plan yet, but mainly when I turn 18, I just want to still continue to wrestle the best and continue to learn and become the best version of myself that I can,” Wayne said. “I want to try to always stay evolving in a way and always be trying to better myself. I don’t know whenever my prime will be, but I want to always try to always feel like I’m in some type of prime, always trying to evolve in some way.”
Wayne appeared on the January 4 episode of AEW Dynamite; he briefly interacted with Darby Allin, and Samoa Joe tried to attack him before Darby intervened.
