5 AEW wrestlers who lost to WWE Superstars in under 3 minutes

AEW's rise in the professional wrestling industry has been nothing short of meteoric. While good financial backing and a solid broadcast deal certainly help, there's an aura about the company that has instantly made it a hit amongst pro wrestling fans

AEW has a mix of superstars - the younger talent who are homegrown or weren't as well known outside of the promotion, as well as established veterans. Then there's the mix of superstars who made the jump from WWE and are having a new lease on their wrestling lives in Tony Khan's promotion.

This list looks at five AEW superstars who made WWE appearances and lost in under three minutes.

---

#5 Fuego Del Sol - AEW's recent signee was squashed by Erick Rowan

Fuego del Sol has experienced his popularity increase in the past two months, especially after he was handed an AEW contract on the first episode of Rampage. He had to go through a lot to eventually secure his contract, but AEW was always a better fit for him than WWE.

Fuego Del Sol has worked on AEW Dark and even made an appearance on Monday Night RAW in early 2020. Del Sol, only 24 at the time, was given an opportunity on Monday Night RAW to face Erick Rowan.

Rowan was in the midst of his mystery cage storyline, and a couple of months before the eventual reveal of what was inside the cage, he was on a destructive run.

One of his victims was Fuego del Sol. Over a year-and-a-half before his eventual signing with AEW, Del Sol went by the name of KJ Orso, and on January 7th, 2020, he faced Erick Rowan in a squash match.

Erick Rowan attacked him before the match even started, but "Orso" was goaded into challenging him for a fight, and the match began. Unsurprisingly, it ended in less than half a minute with the victory going to Erick Rowan.

Rowan would take "Orso" to the mystery cage, and shoved his face onto it, revealing only to his opponent what was inside. Orso moved back with blood all over his face. It would later be revealed that a huge, furry, and scary spider was inside the cage.

Speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Fuego del Sol said that he remembered his RAW appearance very "fondly":

“I remember that day pretty fondly. They had KJ Orso just constantly practice that over and over again, running up the ramp. But they need this visual of the cage squirting some red stuff in the face and running and screaming. So, no mask. I couldn’t do it at that time, so he did it. It was a good payday for him, and he went from there. He took this prop guy and they had this little capsule in his mouth, and so, he just had to spit into his hand and rub it all over his face because it couldn’t be blood on a PG show. There’s no blood. It was just red mist, red substance. There was a big man that kept saying this over and over. ‘It can’t be blood.’ You had to cover your face the whole time to kind of hide it," Del Sol said. (H/T SEScoops)

Del Sol said that the cheque he received from WWE "wasn't great," and that the one he received after his first AEW Dark appearance was much better. He credited AEW for taking care of him better.

#4 Ricky Starks - Many encounters with WWE before his AEW signing

Many consider Ricky Starks to be one of AEW's brightest future stars. Even though Starks wrestled for nine years before joining AEW, he considers himself a homegrown talent of the promotion.

Be that as it may, the nine years prior to his AEW signing saw him go through a lot of ups and downs, the latter particularly during his encounters with WWE. His first opportunity came in 2012 as an enhancement talent against Jinder Mahal, where he was squashed by the future WWE champion.

Speaking to Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone on AEW Unrestricted, Starks spoke about his squash match in WWE a year into his wrestling career:

“I think my first enhancement match was back in 2012, a year after I started wrestling. I think that was against Jinder Mahal on SmackDown in Houston, and that was cool to just have that experience,” Starks stated. “Obviously, when you’re younger and doing stuff like that you’re like, ‘oh this is it. This is how I’m getting my big break.’ Obviously, it didn’t turn out like that. That was the first start of that, and then, as the years went on, I started to do more with them. (H/T WrestlingInc)

Starks would have numerous enhancement talent appearances over the years, and even had a five-minute match with WWE legend Kane. AEW worked out for him, and that seemed to be the best option following his disappointing WWE trial in 2017.

Starks and Sammy Guevara were in the same WWE trial, and the latter, who is now the AEW TNT Champion, said that he knew Vince McMahon's company wasn't the place for him.

Starks shares a similar sentiment, but admits that he was disappointed because WWE was his childhood dream. However, he has come a long way in his career, and AEW is the perfect fit for him now.

#3 Dr. Britt Baker - The AEW Women's Champion was squashed by Nia Jax

Dr. Britt Baker is now the AEW Women's Champion, and she has come a long way. Only a year into her wrestling career, she was an extra and stated that women usually sat idly in catering while the men were normally used for security spots.

She mentioned in an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that at the time, women weren't used in enhancement talent matches. That changed in 2016 as WWE was making a change in approach to the presentation of women.

"That was probably the most anxious I've been in my entire life. At the time, I had done a couple of the spots for extra work before. It was very uneventful for women. A lot of the men, extra talent, would get used for security spots, to get beat up, or just the random stuff. The girls, we kind of just sat around and watched in catering all day."

On the first episode of RAW after the re-introduction of the brand split and the WWE Draft 2016, she was Nia Jax's debut opponent. Jax, who was drafted to RAW from NXT, squashed the future AEW Women's Champion.

Right before Britt Baker won the AEW Women's Championship, WWE posted a throwback clip of Nia Jax squashing a superstar on her RAW debut. Many noticed that this was a sly shot at AEW and Britt Baker by the WWE social media team.

#2 Kris Statlander - Had an appearance in WWE half a year before signing with AEW

For the last two years, Kris Statlander has been one of AEW's mainstays in the Women's Division. While the company is still in the process of building the women's division, Statlander will continue to be one of the main stars.

Kris Statlander's wrestling career only began five years ago. Half a year before her AEW debut, she teamed up with Karissa Rivera in a team known as "The Brooklyn Belles" to face The IIconics. Peyton Royce and Billie Kay were coming off their WWE Women's Tag Team title win at WrestleMania 35 in 2019.

The match lasted under a few minutes, and Statlander and Rivera lost to the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions in a squash match. She was in the running to become AEW Women's Champion early into her signing with the promotion. However, she fell short.

Statlander had to take a nine-month-hiatus before she eventually returned. She later challenged Britt Baker for the AEW Women's title at All Out but failed to capture the gold once again.

Looking back, perhaps the one-off enhancement talent appearance in WWE helped others take notice of her. AEW seems to be a much better fit for Statlander.

#1 Matt Jackson - Competed in WWE over a decade before signing with AEW

Matt Jackson, one half of the former AEW Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks, had worked with WWE a few times in the past. Well over a decade before the formation of the company, Matt Jackson had a match against legend Big Show.

Big Show was all set to face The Undertaker at Cyber Sunday - the pay-per-view where fan vote directly impacted various factors. In the case of The Undertaker vs Big Show, it was the stipulation.

The three options were a Knockout match, an I Quit match, and a Last Man Standing Match. He demonstrated his ability to compete in all three stipulations by having a succession of the above-stated bouts against enhancement talents.

The Last Man Standing match was against none other than future AEW star Matt Jackson. Unsurprisingly, the match lasted for mere seconds before The Big Show put Matt through a table and won.

The tweet posted above pointed out the irony of Big Show signing with AEW and being "lower" in the hierarchy than Matt Jackson, who is now a big player with The Young Bucks.