10 Wrestlers Who Turned Down AEW

4. Ben Carter

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AEW

Ben Carter is a unique talent when looking at the names on this list, for he is the only wrestler here to have actually wrestled in an AEW ring. While Nick Aldis and Marty Scurll did compete at the first All In show, that wasn't formally under the AEW name at that point in time.

As for Carter, he's these days found under the WWE banner and signed to the NXT UK brand.

After putting on a ludicrously fun - and much-lauded - match with Lee Johnson on AEW Dark last September, Carter became the talk of the wrestling industry. He and Johnson absolutely tore it up, and the fans, wrestlers and news outlets were all abuzz with what both Ben Carter and Lee Johnson could bring to the AEW table.

That fun Johnson bout was followed up by another stellar outing for Carter against Scorpio Sky, and it seemed a given that the 22-year-old would be the latest name to formally sign with AEW. Instead, it was WWE where Ben Carter saw his future - with him having talked up how it was his childhood dream to compete inside a WWE ring.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.