6 Wrestlers who turned down WWE Contracts

#3 and #2 Santana and Ortiz (Proud-N-Powerful)

They wanted to be part of history...

If there is one thing that AEW has over other promotions, it's that they have some of the best tag teams on the professional wrestling circuit. This includes the Lucha Bros, SCU, Private Party, The Young Bucks, and Proud-N-Powerful.

Santana and Ortiz were known as LAX in Impact Wrestling and were easily one of the more over tag teams there. Their arrival in AEW was not a surprise, but it turns out that WWE did make them a huge offer to sign with NXT over AEW.

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, they said that they turned WWE down because they felt that they could part of history with AEW and that they would be small fish in a large pond. They explained,

"The ultimate decision was do we wanna be part of something that’s already established or do we want to be something new and make history because no matter what happens with AEW, we will always be part of the first ever main event of the first ever television of AEW. Do we want to be part of history or do we want to fade to black? Best case scenario we would be the small fish in an ocean. There’s so many people there and it would be an uphill battle. "

From their vantage point, it looks like Santana and Ortiz were proven right in this regard. They're one of the best heel stables in AEW and it won't be long before they become AEW Tag Team Champions.