10 Trades WWE & AEW Need To Make In 2022

These WWE & AEW stars could do with a change of sceneer in 2022...

Shinsuke Nakamura AEW
AEW/WWE

If the last 12 months have taught us anything in this often chaotic landscape we call the wrestling business, it's that you should always expect the unexpected when it pertains to a talent suddenly opting to jump ship from one company to another.

Specifically, the hop from World Wrestling Entertainment over to the land of All Elite has been a rather popular route in 2021, with the likes of Malakai Black, Andrade El Idolo, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, Tony Nese, Ruby Soho, and many more making the move upon heading out of Vinnie Mac's empire.

But to class any of these switches as straight-up "trades" would be a blatant lie... unless McMahon is actually secretly pulling the strings behind the AEW scenes as many a well-informed Twitter fan would have you believe.

However, in a much more harmonious world, if these two top tier companies were on speaking terms, then you have to think that the following amicable transfers would be best for business on both sides of the WWE/AEW divide.

From absolute wrecking ball machines to underused independent legends, each of these wrestlers would undoubtedly benefit from a change of scene in the not too distant future...

10. Private Party To WWE

Shinsuke Nakamura AEW
AEW

Currently taking up a spot within Matt Hardy's collection of often jobbed out misfits known as The Hardy Family Office, Private Party have had a bit of a stop-start run as part of Tony Khan's ever-expanding promotion.

After stealing all kinds of headlines in the wake of shockingly besting the Young Bucks in the first round of the tournament that would ultimately crown the first-ever AEW Tag Team Champions, the two would slip down the card and not really capitalise on the momentum they'd gathered early on. Failed title challenges would follow in both AEW and Impact, with Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen both routinely showing off their impressive athleticism and charisma but still not exactly making a sizeable dent on the tag division.

Throwing them into WWE's current vibrant landscape, where marketability is often as important as your in-ring ability, feels like a wise enough move for the two. You can literally see them rocking up in NXT 2.0 with a shot glass in hand now and their experience consistently working alongside the likes of Hardy and co. on All Elite programming would likely benefit some of the rising teams on the developmental brand too.

Contributor
Contributor

Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...