Dragon Lee is the most recent major star to sign with WWE, as he announced the news during Wednesday night’s AAA Noche de Campeones. It turns out that prior to AEW featuring him on television without a contract, WWE was not considering signing Dragon Lee.
Dave Meltzer discussed the signing on the Wrestling Observer Radio. Lee and Dralistico defeated AEW’s FTR to win the AAA Tag Team Championships on Wednesday’s show, only to vacate them immediately afterwards.
“The deal was made a couple of weeks ago, but they were told to keep it quiet, and they won’t make the announcement until they won the tag team titles, which is very interesting because he pinned an AEW star which was part of the deal. Tony Khan was aware of it. I am sure if this was reversed that it would have never happened.”
Meltzer continued, “He was working in Mexico, and there is not a lot of money in Mexico. He and Dralisico had a tryout with WWE, and they wanted him. AEW wanted him as well. He was talking to various people.”
Meltzer pointed out that Lee did not sign with WWE for big money because he is under an NXT contract. Meltzer stated that WWE became interested in him after AEW featured him without a contract.
“Like with Bandido, WWE’s interest in Dragon Lee came when they found out that AEW put this guy on television with no contract. So it was kind of like, ‘We can swoop in.’ That was one of the things. They came after him after that deal, and right after that, he was signed, but he was signed a couple of weeks back. That was the catalyst of it was them finding out that AEW put a guy on television with no deal.”
Lee won over the fans in AEW a few months ago when he was a member of Los Ingobernables. Lee wrestled on the August 28 episode of AEW Dynamite, where he teamed with Rush and Andrade El Idolo against The Elite in a Trios Tournament match.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
