10 Wrestlers Who Turned Down AEW
3. LA Knight
It's still a tad strange refer to him as LA Knight, but the former Eli Drake was twice close to signing with All Elite Wrestling.
As Knight revealed exclusively to us here at WhatCulture last year, an AEW debut was so close to happening that he already had his entrance music ready to go.
The chance to join AEW came about once the IMPACT Wrestling tenure of Eli Drake came to an end in 2019. WWE had already had previous interest in bringing in the real-life Shaun Ricker, and the post-IMPACT days saw AEW similarly keen to bring the one-time IMPACT World Champion into the fold.
Instead, the charismatic performer would at that time opt to sign with Billy Corgan's NWA, before then finally making his way to NXT and taking on the LA Knight moniker.