AEW Looking To Add "Nationally Televised Talent" To Its Roster (AEW News)

Speculation continues to grow that the New Day are on their way to AEW...

New Day Kofi Kingston Xavier Woods
WWE.com

With many wrestling fans expecting a few familiar faces to pop up in AEW later this year, Fightful Select now notes that Tony Khan's promotion is set to add some "nationally televised talent" to its roster over the summer.

Of course, that leans nicely into the heavy speculation that the New Day and Motor City Machine Guns will be landing in AEW as and when their existing WWE non-competes are up, with both legendary tag teams being part of WWE's post-WrestleMania 42 releases. In the case of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, they were outright released by WWE, whereas Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were asked to take a pay cut, which they refused and opted to instead take their release.

It's worth noting that no specific talents are named in this Fightful report, but just that AEW will be having some incoming wrestlers who've had experience of being on national television.

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Away from the New Day and Motor City Machine Guns, other notable names released by WWE after WrestleMania 42 include Kairi Sane, Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Santos Escobar, and the Wyatt Sicks. Away from those ex-WWE talents, former TNA World Champion Steve Maclin was granted his release from the Anthem promotion this past weekend, as was impressive Northern Irish grappler Myla Grace, with plenty of speculation on where they may end up next.

In 2026 so far, Tomasso Ciampa, the Rascalz, Lena Kross, Mascara Dorada, and Persephone are some of the bigger names to formally become #AllElite, and it sounds like there'll be a few more signees for the company in the coming weeks and months.

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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/Saints, Jamie Hayter, 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 a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.