Dragon Lee is the most recent big name star to sign with WWE, as he announced the news during AAA Noche de Campeones on Wednesday night. It turns out that WWE was not interested in Dragon Lee until AEW put him on television without a contract.
While speaking on today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the signing. Lee and Dralistico beat AEW’s FTR at Wednesday’s show to win the AAA Tag Team Championships only to vacate them right after the match.
“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 noted that Lee didn’t sign with WWE for big money as he’s under an NXT deal. Meltzer noted that WWE became interested in him when AEW put him on television without any 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 got over with the fans in AEW when he was part of Los Ingobernables a few months ago. Lee wrestled on the August 28 episode of AEW Dynamite, where he teamed with Rush and Andrade El Idolo in a Trios Tournament match against The Elite.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit F4WOnline.com with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. An F4WOnline.com subscription includes the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and daily audio shows in addition to thousands of hours of archived audio shows.
