10 AEW Talents You Didn't Know Wrestled For WWE

All Elite Wrestling has been a godsend not just for fans desperately seeking an alternative, but for wrestlers looking to make a decent living in the industry.

Some of those currently signed to AEW know how hard it is to crack the WWE nut, with several having had matches there that, typically, led to nothing.

And while there are famous examples of AEW stars wrestling one-offs for WWE in the past – yes, we all know Matt Jackson was Chokeslammed through a table by Big Show – there are others plying their trade for Tony Khan’s promotion who wrestled for WWE that may have slipped under your radar.

These are 10 AEW Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Competed in WWE.

10. John Silver

John Silver signed with All Elite Wrestling in December of 2019, alongside tag team partner Alex Reynolds.

The Dark Order member has been a mainstay since and plays his part as a solid worker who wrestles primarily in tag and multi-man matches.

Just a few months before he became All Elite, however, Silver wrestled for WWE, teaming with Alex Keaton (AKA Alex Reynolds) to put over Heavy Machinery on the September 10, 2019, episode of SmackDown.

This was not the first time Silver had appeared on WWE TV, mind.

The first time he got called in for enhancement duty was back in 2012, where he was an early victim for Ryback during the former Skip Sheffield’s initial monster push.

Silver (as Rob Grymes) teamed with Dan Delaney to lose a quick handicap match to The Big Guy at that year’s No Way Out pay-per-view.

Evidently impressed with his ability to make a big, bald monster look good, WWE again chose Silver to get squashed by Lars Sullivan on an episode of NXT almost six years later.

9. Queen Aminata

Officially confirmed as All Elite in February of 2024, Queen Aminata has been competing on AEW and Ring of Honor television since April 2021, gaining experiences on Dark and Dark: Elevation before getting a chance to show her stuff on Rampage, Collision and Dynamite, her breakout performance coming in a loss to Ring of Honor Women’s Champion Athena at Death Before Dishonor 2024.

She’d had to pay her dues to get to that point, dues that included doing enhancement work for WWE.

Aminata teamed with Jaylee in a losing effort against The Kabuki Warriors on the April 30, 2019, episode of SmackDown.

The ‘local competitors’ were trounced by Asuka and Kairi Sane in just a couple of minutes.

8. Powerhouse Hobbs

With his size, athleticism, look and general presence, Powerhouse Hobbs has all the ingredients to make it far in the professional wrestling business.

Given all those qualities, you would assume WWE would be interested in him at some point in the future. Well, now that he’s established himself as a star-in-the-making, anyway, because WWE passed on Hobbs after he had a tryout some years ago.

Hobbs had mainly wrestled for the California-based APW, the promotion that had trained him, when he bagged a three-day WWE tryout, which included a dark match, in October of 2016.

He put over Baron Corbin prior to a SmackDown taping, yet evidently didn’t do enough to impress WWE officials (even though he says he received good feedback from people afterwards).

Though he was brought in for extra work a handful of times after, no contract offer was forthcoming and so he moved on while trying to gain extra experience elsewhere.

It was only after AEW showed interest in him that WWE suddenly became interested, with Hobbs basically telling them just where they could take their offer.

7. Serpentico

The masked Serpentico is a great example of someone who turned what could have been a fleeting opportunity into something long-term and substantial.

Brought in to do enhancement work in March of 2020, the Snakeman got over and became a mainstay on AEW Dark, his Chaos Project team with Luther being one of the YouTube show’s highlights.

He’s continued to be a soldier for Tony Khan and is regularly booked for Ring of Honor, while also doing plenty of dark matches at AEW tapings and working behind the scenes as a producer.

In another universe, the 16-year veteran and Team 3D Academy graduate might have had a similar utility role in WWE, considering the connections of his Hall of Fame trainers.

As it is, Serpentico (as Jonathan Cruz) has only wrestled two matches for WWE’s NXT brand.

The first was a quick loss to The Authors of Pain in September of 2016 and the second was a loss to Elias Samson in January of 2017.

Cruz wasn’t signed on the back of these appearances, nor did he get picked up after a December 2018 tryout.

6. Preston Vance

As the masked enforcer of The Dark Order, Preston Vance – AKA Ten – was a regular presence on AEW television starting in 2020.

Since leaving the Dark Order, taking off his mask and going by his new name, Vance hasn’t had quite as many chances to show his stuff due to diminished TV time, but he has looked impressive when spotlighted.

He certainly didn’t get a lot of TV time when he showed up on an episode of WWE NXT in 2018, either.

As Cody Vincent, Vance teamed up with George Hixon to take on the War Raiders in a match taped to air on May 30 that year.

Given that the Raiders were running through the NXT tag division at the time and Vance and Hixon didn’t get so much as a graphic displaying their names, it doesn’t take a wrestling genius to figure out how this one went.

As expected, Vance got in zero offence and was thrown about from pillar to post before being pinned in short order.

5. Prince Nana

All Elite Wrestling finally provided the tremendous Prince Nana with a global stage on which to display his talents.

And those talents – mainly the charismatic promos and, of course, that infectious dance – have greatly benefitted Swerve Strickland, with Nana helping take the former AEW World Champion to the next level.

Before AEW, Prince Nana was best known for his time in Ring of Honor, where he managed The Embassy.

It was his work with ROH that brought him to the attention of WWE, who offered him a tryout in 2013. You may not know that prior to trying out as a manager, Prince Nana had actually wrestled for WWE.

In the early 2000s, Nana was trying to make it as a wrestler, not a manager, and secured a couple of enhancement gigs, first putting over Steve Blackman on an episode of Jakked in July of 2001, before being brought back to stare at the ceiling for Crash Holly in January of 2002.

They were routine matches, apart from the fact the loss to Crash took place inside Madison Square Garden, at a taping that also had bouts featuring Nana’s future Ring of Honor cohorts Low Ki and Xavier.

4. Brian Cage

The ship may have sailed on Brian Cage potentially going to WWE, with The Swolverine signing a new, five-year deal with AEW in April of 2023.

By Cage’s own admission, he did at least consider the possibility of going to WWE, with he and his agent going back and forth between the two companies, before he committed to Tony Khan’s promotion.

Cage had been in the WWE system before, mind, long before he made his reputation on the indie circuit.

According to Cage, a friendship with Chris Kanyon led to him getting extra work, which resulted in him receiving a tryout match prior to the June 7, 2008, ECW television taping.

Tagging up with another hopeful against Shannon Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang, the match wasn’t exactly smooth sailing as Cage suffered a concussion while taking Yang’s top-rope cross body.

Despite that – and later interrupting John Laurinaitis backstage – Cage evidently did enough to impress officials and was offered a developmental contract.

He never made it out of FCW, however, and this dark match remains his one and only official WWE bout.

3. Aaron Solo

Former Factory and QTV member Aaron Solo has been with AEW since 2020, securing himself a spot as a dependable talent that is primarily used to put others other.

It’s a role he knows well, to be fair, having been utilised by WWE in similar fashion various times in the past.

Solo had been on WWE’s radar going back to 2014, when he was called in to put over the team of Jason Jordan & Tye Dillinger and then The Ascension at NXT tapings in May and June of that year.

A year later, the black-and-gold beckoned once more, with Solo doing the favours for Tyler Breeze and then appearing on the losing side of an eight-man tag match.

Solo continued to get a look, coming back in January of 2017 for an NXT dark match loss to Wolfgang and a brief bout with Akira Tozawa on 205 Live.

Solo would have to wait a year for another enhancement gig, teaming with a certain Ricky Starks to put over The Revival on Raw, with his last WWE appearance to date being against Lio Rush on 205 Live that December.

2. The Blade

Though The Butcher and The Blade come across as a pair of grizzled veterans, it should be noted that the former (despite being in his mid-to-late 40s) is actually less than a decade into his sports entertainment journey.

Yet while he may be two years younger, The Blade is vastly more experienced – experience that includes several matches for WWE.

As Pepper Parks, The Blade worked for the Heartland Wrestling Association between 2000 and 2006, including during the time HWA was being used as a developmental territory for WWE, allowing him to rub shoulders with some of the prospects the company sent to Ohio for seasoning.

His only matches in a WWE ring, however, were a series of squash match losses beginning in August of 2007 when (using his real name of Jesse Guilmette) he met The Boogeyman on ECW.

Two years later, ECW job duty would come calling once more as he got steamrolled by Vladimir Kozlov in May of 2009 and then by Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson in a tag match four months later (for which he was billed as ‘Jim Parks’).

His last WWE outing came in May of 2010, when he (as Jesse Guyver) was beaten by Shad Gaspard on SmackDown in what turned out to be Shad’s final televised WWE match.

1. Nigel McGuinness

In September of 2009, Nigel McGuinness agreed a deal in principle to sign with WWE. But a month later, the offer was rescinded when an old biceps injury that required surgery resulted in him failing a physical.

It was a bitter blow for the former Ring of Honor World Champion, whose main goal in the business was to make it to WWE.

Luckily for Nigel, he did at least get one opportunity to ply his trade in a McMahon-owned ring.

After doing some work for WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, McGuinness was given something of a tryout against Danny Basham on an episode of Heat that aired on September 11, 2005.

The reigning ROH Pure Champion at the time, Nigel was not given an entrance and lost what was essentially a glorified squash match.

He wasn’t signed afterwards and would, in fact, have to wait more than a decade before inking a WWE contract – and not as a wrestler, but as a commentator for NXT and NXT UK.

These days, McGuinness is calling the action for AEW and got some sort of closure on his in-ring career with his emotional return to the squared circle at All In 2024.