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AEW has established itself as the number two wrestling promotion in the world behind WWE. While they currently boast a number of homegrown stars, such as current AEW World Champion MJF and Britt Baker, a number of their stars came from WWE as well.
Some of them left WWE because of issues with current Executive Chairman Vince McMahon, and their stories are just as interesting as the ones about how they joined AEW. Here are five current AEW stars who left WWE because of Vince McMahon.
#5. Former AEW Women's Champion Toni Storm
Toni Storm wrestled in the WWE between 2017 to 2021. She was a rising wrestler at the time, winning the NXT UK Women's Championship. She had hopes of becoming a superstar under Vince McMahon's supervision on the main roster. However, it didn't go according to her plans.
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Toni Storm has gone on record to say that Vince McMahon wanted her to take part in a segment with Charlotte Flair that she was uncomfortable with.
As per reported by Fightful, she revealed that he wanted her to be stripped down to her underwear, but the idea was thankfully scrapped.
"The original idea was like, I was called up and asked if I was comfortable having my shirt ripped off or something. They wanted to do this whole angle where they wanted to rip my shirt off to be embarrassed, in my underwear, I guess. When you're asked if you're comfortable to do that and literally, people are being fired every single week, it's like, 'Well, yeah, I guess I'm comfortable with that.' Then, a lot of people fought to not have that happen. That would have been a terrible idea." [H/T Fightful]
McMahon's bizarre idea never took place, which must have come as a massive relief for Storm. Perhaps this was the last straw during a rather turbulent time for her.
#4. Former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho
On a previous episode of The Kurt Angle Show, AEW Superstar Chris Jericho spoke about the transition he made from WWE to AEW and why he decided to leave WWE in 2018 following his feud with Kevin Owens.
"There were a lot of reasons," Jericho said. "I think the main reason was that I had done everything that I wanted to do in WWE for 17 years."
Jericho also revealed that he was frustrated by the way his feud with Owens ended at WrestleMania 33. The Ocho stated that he felt like he deserved more than just two matches with Owens leading up to WrestleMania 33 and that it would take too long for him to get back into another feud once he returned from injury.
#3. AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR
FTR, fka The Revival in WWE, achieved great success in NXT as the brand's Tag Team Champions. There, they faced off against a number of top teams. It was clear that the two were not happy on the main roster. Dax Harwood recently shared the moment he realized FTR would have to leave WWE.
After being significantly underutilized on the main roster, FTR requested their release in January 2019 and received it in April 2020. They eventually joined AEW and held several tag titles simultaneously with IWGP, ROH, and AAA belts.
In an interview with Fightful, Dax Harwood also spoke about his WWE release, where he admitted that he disagreed with Vince McMahon's opinion towards tag team wrestling.
Harwood said he knew they could do better if tag team wrestling was presented more effectively:
“This is going to sound very egotistical and I don’t mean for it to, but we knew that we could do better than what we were doing, and we knew that tag team wrestling could be presented better than it was being presented.”
#2. Blackpool Combat Club member Jon Moxley
AEW's Jon Moxley has gone on to criticize Vince McMahon in his autobiography, 'MOX.'
When the former Dean Ambrose left WWE in 2019, it was clear that he was unhappy with the creative process and his on-screen booking. This prompted him to leave the promotion. Jon Moxley has also openly stated that the lack of creative freedom over his promos has damaged his character:
"There was a time I thought I'd be a lifer with WWE, but this whole place has gone F'n MAD, and I feel like I'm the only one who can see it... buncha MFers just playing violins while the ship sinks and Vince continues to lose his mind." Moxley stated.
It is clear that Mox is much happier in AEW, given the creative freedom he has in the company.
#1. Former AEW World Champion CM Punk
CM Punk was a WWE superstar who was unhappy with the way he was being booked, and he also felt lied to about the extent of his injuries by WWE. He sued the company for the injuries that nearly killed him prior to his walkout after the 2014 Royal Rumble.
Later that night, CM Punk had a heated argument with Vince McMahon. After a night of fans angrily shuffling out of the building due to Punk's loss and subsequent walkouts, he never returned to WWE again.
