WWE wanted to sign popular AEW act

One of AEW's earliest signings has just revealed that before joining the promotion, there was also a possibility that he and his tag team partner could have ended up in WWE. The star in question is former Inner Circle member Ortiz.

Ortiz was a member of Latin American Xchange (LAX) alongside his longtime partner, Santana, when they were still with IMPACT. In 2019, the two departed the company and signed with AEW, aligning with Chris Jericho's Inner Circle. This would be the case until the group eventually split up, and all members went on separate paths.

In his recent appearance on the Shining Wizard Wrestling Podcast, Ortiz revealed that he and Santana had many options regarding their future in 2019. IMPACT was willing to re-sign them, and they had interest from both WWE and AEW. The former pitched bringing them into NXT, and it was a very appealing offer.

“Impact definitely wanted to keep us. WWE was an option at that time. It really went back and forth with us and it made our decision really hard. They made it very appealing and we would’ve gone over for ‘NXT. They were making it really appealing and hard for us to actually choose AEW."

In the end, they would end up choosing AEW as this had the best scheduling and it was more time-flexible. This would allow them to still go back to their families more often.

"Ultimately, we went with AEW just because the schedule was a huge factor being that we would be at home more with our families.We’d be able to raise our children and have more of a hand in that. We were thinking best case scenario. Lets say we’d bust our a** and take off and make it to the main roster in WWE. We’d probably never be home.” [H/T WrestleTalk]

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AEW star Ortiz reveals that he'll venture away from tag team wrestling

In their return to AEW, Santana and Ortiz played an angle of former tag team partners having heat with one another. The two settled their differences in the ring one final time before going their separate ways.

This was mirroring their real-life scenario, as the two did not wish to work with each other anymore.

In the same podcast, Ortiz revealed that as he was not competing in a tag team for the first time in a while, he would start exploring how he'd be as a singles competitor moving forward.

"Right now I'm not tag team wrestling, which is a new adventure for me, because I spent the majority of my career as a tag guy, I'm kind of trying to find my voice. I still don't know what the answer is, but it's almost exciting because I get a new palette to paint with," he said. (H/T wrestlinginc.com)

It remains to be seen how Ortiz's singles run will go, and seeing as he's coming off a loss to Santana during their no-disqualification grudge match a couple of months back, he'll be looking to gain momentum.

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