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Although they are now competing with WWE, a few AEW stars were once fans of Vince McMahon's company and its WWE Superstars.
Many AEW Stars were WWE fans in their childhood. Jungle Boy, for example, attended SummerSlam in 2009. He was pictured sitting beside his father, Luke Perry, among the crowd. The 24-year-old was also seen in attendance at the 2015 Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.
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Other AEW Stars also attended live WWE events and signings in their younger years. As kids, they got the opportunity to meet and take photos with their favorite WWE Superstars.
Years later, a few of them were fortunate to work with their childhood heroes after becoming wrestlers themselves. Today, one AEW Star even shares the locker room with his favorite WWE Superstar as a kid.
Here are five photos of AEW Stars as kids with WWE Legends.
#5. AEW Star CM Punk
Before he became a wrestling legend, CM Punk was a young Stone Cold Steve Austin fan. In his younger years, Punk met his childhood hero multiple times. He took two photos with Austin at two different WWE events.
Last year, Punk shared a rare photo that he took with Austin in the mid-1990s. Young Punk looked a little different with short blonde hair.
Punk also has another photo with Austin at a different event. In the second picture, the current AEW Star had red spikey hair.
In 2011, Austin and Punk stood together again in front of the camera. However, this time they shot a segment in WWE. Punk had become a WWE Superstar, and Austin was making a guest appearance on Monday Night RAW.
Five years later, Austin was asked to pick his dream opponent for one final match. The Texas Rattlesnake disclosed that he would like to fight Brock Lesnar or CM Punk.
"I think me and CM Punk would have sold a lot of tickets together. And again, he gets it, I get it. It would be one entertaining program. He’s smart. His psychology is great. He’s easy in the ring, meaning his physicality, everything looks good [and] nothing hurts. Again, I would think me and him would be right on the same page psychologically and we’d be able to weave a hell of a tale," Austin said on on The Ross Report podcast.
During a Q&A session on his Twitter account, The Best in the World also revealed that Austin was a dream opponent he never got to wrestle. CM Punk is now good friends with the WWE Hall of Famer.
#4. AEW Star MJF
Like CM Punk adored Stone Cold Steve Austin growing up, The Best in the World was the childhood hero of another AEW star.
AEW star Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) was a CM Punk fan in his childhood. He met Punk at what seemed like a WWE signing. The young MJF looked very happy standing beside his favorite WWE Superstar.
A few years after taking that picture with Punk, MJF became a pro wrestler himself. After performing in a few different promotions, the 25-year-old signed a contract with AEW in 2019. He joined The Inner Circle the following year.
Earlier this year, MJF was planning a coup in The Inner Circle but failed. Instead, he was kicked out of the group. He then revealed that he had formed another group, The Pinnacle, alongside Wardlow, Shawn Spears, Tully Blanchard, and FTR.
The Pinnacle and The Inner Circle battled twice. Their first match came at AEW Dynamite - Blood & Guts last May. The Pinnacle defeated The Inner Circle in a Blood and Guts match. However, The Inner Circle got their revenge a few weeks later, beating The Pinnacle at Double or Nothing in a Stadium Stampede match.
In the past few weeks, MJF defeated Sammy Guevara and Chris Jericho in one-on-one matches. It will be interesting to see if the 25-year-old will soon cross paths with his childhood hero CM Punk, who has just joined him in the AEW locker room.
#3. AEW Star Sammy Guevara
AEW Sammy Guevara was born in Houston, Texas. At a young age, Guevara figured he wanted to become a pro wrestler. He then joined Texas-based pro wrestling promotion, Reality of Wrestling.
During a Q&A session on Instagram earlier this year, a fan was curious to know who trained the AEW Star. In response, Guevara shared a photo of himself as a kid with WWE Legend Booker T. The WWE Hall of Famer owns Reality of Wrestling.
Sammy Guevara looked different in this throwback picture with Booker T. His old hairstyle received a lot of attention from fans. Some even asked him to bring it back.
After wrestling in different promotions for nearly six years, Guevara joined AEW in 2019. He joined Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, and Santana & Ortiz to form The Inner Circle.
Sammy Guevara currently has an ongoing four-match winning streak in AEW. Last Wednesday, he teamed up with Fuego Del Sol to defeat Luther and Serpentico in a tag team match.
Outside the ring, Guevara is also living happy times. He recently announced his engagement to his girlfriend of eight years, Pam Nizio.
#2. AEW Star Chris Jericho
AEW star Chris Jericho has become a legend in the wrestling industry. However, many years before that, he was just a young WWE fan.
Back in the day, a young Chris Jericho got the opportunity to meet one of his favorite wrestlers, WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat. The Demo God appeared to be overly excited to stand next to The Dragon. Little did they both know that they would compete against each other in a WWE ring years later.
Jericho was fortunate to share the ring with Steamboat three times. At WrestleMania 25, the former AEW World Champion defeated Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Steamboat in a Handicap Elimination match.
The following night on RAW, Steamboat teamed up with CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, John Cena, and Rey Mysterio to face Jericho, Edge, Kane, Matt Hardy, and The Big Show. Steamboat's team came out victorious.
Later that month, Jericho and Steamboat finally settled their feud at Backlash, going head-to-head. The current leader of The Inner Circle forced The Dragon to tap out to the Walls of Jericho.
Jericho is currently feuding with MJF. The two wrestlers will go one-on-one at AEW All Out. If Jericho loses the match, he will have to retire from in-ring competition in AEW.
#1. AEW Ring Announcer Justin Roberts
AEW Ring Announcer Justin Roberts also met his favorite WWE Superstar when he was a kid. In the early 1990s, a young Justin Roberts took a photo with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.
Nearly two decades later, Roberts shared the photo on his Twitter account. He also posted another picture where he stood behind Michaels in a WWE ring.
"Follow your dreams kids, you never know where they may take you," the current AEW Ring Announcer commented on the two photos.
Justin Roberts also used his old photo with Michaels in an article he published on Medium in 2014. In his article, Roberts spoke about his love for pro wrestling since his childhood.
"I am and have been a wrestling fan since I was a child. I was a nerd. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I got bullied. But I didn’t care, I had an escape. Every Saturday, Sunday and Monday I escaped the real and often cruel world I lived in by watching World Wrestling Entertainment. The larger-than-life wrestlers, the dramatic emotional roller coaster story lines and everything about these TV shows captured my attention and imagination," he wrote in his article.
Roberts spent nearly 12 years in WWE before leaving in 2014. Five years later, he joined AEW.
