"He didn’t know that we could wrestle" - Ex-WWE tag team reveals the story behind Tony Khan signing them to AEW

Tony Khan has signed several former WWE tag teams to AEW over the years. Teams such as FTR, The Undisputed Kingdom, 2point0, and The Hurt Syndicate are among those that have worked for both promotions. Now, another viral duo has revealed the strange story behind Khan signing them to AEW contracts.

MxM Collection was formerly known as the Maximum Male Models in WWE. Mace and Mansoor were released in September 2023 after a somewhat controversial run in WWE, then they reunited on the indies as MxM. The re-packaging led to a loyal fanbase, a successful Twitch channel, plus contracts with Ring of Honor and All Elite Wrestling.

Mansoor and Mace debuted for Khan on the ROH Death Before Dishonor pre-show in July 2024, defeating Spanish Announce Project. The former WWE Superstars debuted in AEW the next night, losing to FTR on Collision. Since then, MxM had a stint in CMLL, while picking up wins over teams like Private Party, Iron Savages, The Pillars of Destiny, and The Dawsons, plus losses to duos such as House of Black, Top Flight, The Acclaimed, and Private Party in the rematch.

MxM arrived in AEW with a viral reference to Sean "Diddy" Combs, and the revelation that Khan had known Mace for around ten years due to the former RETRIBUTION member playing football. Speaking to Chris Jericho on the latest Talk Is Jericho episode, Mansoor revealed just how they won Khan over. The Saudi grappler recalled their debut against Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, praised the AEW-ROH boss, and claimed Khan didn't know they could wrestle:

"Honestly, we won over Tony because he didn’t know that we could wrestle. He had no clue. I think he brought us in as these guys, well, there’s a million great wrestlers in AEW, there’s no shortage of the best wrestlers, we have the best wrestlers in the world. But what can these guys do in terms of entertainment and you know, bringing the live crowd on their feet with something crazy and something different. But the fact that we were able to marry the two in our first couple of matches — I mean our first match on AEW television was FTR," Mansoor said. [H/T to Fightful]

Mansoor continued:

"To Tony’s testament, what a genius move, what a contrast of styles. No other team could have made us look as real to ourselves as possible as FTR. In that match, they were so serious and down to earth wrestlers. I was jumping into his arms like Scooby-Doo. Once we had that match and got the ball rolling, we were getting trusted to have these two segment matches where it was going at a pace where the crowds were really getting into it, as well as entertaining people with our antics, we were off to the races," Mansoor said.

Mansoor made his ROH singles debut at the Final Battle pay-per-view last month. The winner of WWE's 51-Man Super ShowDown Battle Royal was defeated by Atlantis Jr. in just over twelve minutes.

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Kenny Omega hypes his AEW return

Kenny Omega made his long-awaited in-ring return at Wrestle Dynasty this past weekend. He defeated NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd in the brutal 32-minute co-main event of the special show, which was co-promoted by NJPW, AEW, ROH, CMLL, and Stardom.

The Cleaner fought severe health issues while away but will make his official return to All Elite Wrestling as an active competitor on tonight's live episode. Omega took to X to hype the appearance, and also shared a photo from backstage at the Tokyo Dome:

"A year to rebuild. Less to reclaim. Let's take this as far as we can go," Kenny Omega wrote with the photo below.

Omega is expected to face Kazuchika Okada once again, but there's no word yet on when, and if Okada's Continental Championship will be on the line. Kenny's last AEW match was a Collision win over Ethan Page on December 8, 2023.