10 Anti-AEW Moves WWE Made Out Of Spite

7. Calling Eddie Kingston (& Ricky Starks)

WWE's signing policy has shifted drastically in 2021, with the promotion no longer concerned with hoarding any wrestler deemed to be a potential asset to rising competitors. This has, unfortunately, meant dozens of job losses throughout the year, with the group shedding countless names that no longer fit Vince McMahon and Nick Khan's "bigger, younger" vision for their company's future.

Talent hoarding began long before AEW's birth. It commenced alongside NXT's super-indie phase in the mid-2010s, with the likes of Hideo Itami and Finn Balor the first trickles of what would eventually become a flood. Across the country, ROH and the indies were rising once more - and WWE were trying to stop that by signing all their wrestlers.

Proof that the company still wanted all the toys for themselves in 2020 came in the form of Eddie Kingston and Ricky Starks. Kingston, who starred opposite Cody Rhodes in a TNT Title match so strong it started a Twitter movement for AEW to sign him, suddenly got a phone call offering him a position in a company he'd tried out for in the past, but seemingly weren't interested in until they'd witnessed the player he could be for AEW. The same thing happened to Ricky Starks, who claimed to have received the call almost immediately after his own Cody bout.

WWE would have had countless opportunities the sign Starks and Kingston long before AEW existed. That they only moved to do so after they'd impressed on TNT speaks volumes of their motivations.