William Regal tried to convince Santana and Ortiz to sign with WWE instead of AEW

Santana and Ortiz made their AEW debut at 2019's All Out PPV. On the first episode of AEW Dynamite, the former Impact Tag-Team Champions joined Chris Jericho's Inner Circle faction. Santana and Ortiz were recently guests on Chris Jericho's podcast, Talk Is Jericho. During their appearance on the podcast, Santana and Ortiz opened up about how close they came to signing with WWE before they signed with AEW.

Willam Regal tried to get Santana and Ortiz to sign with WWE instead of AEW

NOW @TalkIsJericho- @Santana_Proud & @Ortiz_Powerful talk #ParkingLotBrawl, why they chose @AEW over @WWE, joining #InnerCircle, how my first book influenced their careers, how they met & why they chose to tag, learning from @Konnan5150 & @MadKing1981, former day jobs & more!

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) October 24, 2020

Santana and Ortiz said that they had been in discussions with William Regal about signing with WWE for a while. They added that WWE agreed to the things they had wanted but they still ended up choosing AEW:

We were talking with Regal for a few months. They told us they were really interested in having us. They had seen what we were doing with Impact and on the indies as we were working a lot with Progress and WXW. We kept it real with Regal. I also appreciated that he kept it real with us. He told us, ‘no decision is a wrong decision right now for you guys. You are in a prime spot and be smart about it and whatever you feel is the best, you do what is right for you and your family.’ It definitely was a tough decision. We made the decision to go to AEW. We start to tell Regal that and he could sense what we are saying and he says, ‘Stop. If you haven’t put pen to paper yet, then just keep me informed but if there is something else that you want or you need from us, and we can make it work, let us know.’ The conversation before that, we told them, this is what we want and this is how we want it to go and they said yes to everything.

🤔 https://t.co/gS8xrY9v2N

— Santana / Proud & Powerful🇵🇷 (@Santana_Proud) October 22, 2020

Speaking about why they chose AEW over WWE, Santana and Ortiz said that they both had young families and wanted to watch their children grow up:

We took the chance because we both have young children. We know back in the old days, you didn’t see your children grow up. We wanted to be dads and raise our kids while still continuing to do what we love to do. Best case scenario (with WWE) would be we blow up and become the best tag team. We would not be able to raise our children.

Santana and Ortiz will be a part of The Inner Circle's town hall on the next episode of AEW Dynamite.

You can listen to Talk Is Jericho HERE.