Tony Nese Confirms He Signed With AEW, Calls It ‘A Blessing’

Tony Nese is All Elite.

Tony Nese was a guest on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, and the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion confirmed that he signed with All Elite Wrestling. After Van Vliet said Nese, billed on AEW TV last week as “the hottest free agent in wrestling” is now the hottest signed wrestler in wrestling, Nese said the opportunity was a blessing. 

“Thank you so much, man. This is awesome, it’s been a blessing. I’m very happy,” Nese said.

Nese did not add further detail about the terms of his contract. F4WOnline‘s Dave Meltzer first reported Nese had signed with AEW.

Nese appeared on AEW Dynamite on Saturday, sitting in the crowd during several segments on the broadcast. Van Vliet compared Nese’s Dynamite appearance to a ‘NXT TakeOver’ cameo, where newly signed talent would be seen in the crowd. Nese then explained how the appearance happened, noting that it started with an invite. Nese said he’d been to an AEW taping prior, but he’d only gone to visit friends as his 90-day non-compete was still in effect.  

“They invited me to Orlando (for AEW) and I would say it was literally ten minutes before they went live on the air and I got pulled aside, and they were like, ‘Hey, would you be cool to sit out in the crowd and we just keep showing you on camera?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, why not? TV time? I’ll take it.’ So I just kinda sat out there and at first, when they asked me I was laughing, like ‘Is the house low? Do you need me out there cheering or something?’ And then they explained it to me [about the free agent angle] and from there, we got to discussing where to go from there, and honestly, it’s super-cool how they treated me off the bat and said that ‘Hey, let’s bring you up as a star, let’s build you up as a star’ just like they should anyone else, so I’m definitely appreciative of that.”

Nese also worked the latest set of AEW Dark television tapings in Orlando; his match against Fuego Del Sol will air on next week’s show. Read spoilers for the set of AEW tapings on October 24 at this link.

Read More: Tony Nese Says He Hid Bicep Injury From WWE So He Wouldn’t Get Released

Tony Nese was released by WWE on June 25, and told the Wrestling Perspective Podcast about how his WWE release went down as well as his excitement for the future.

“So it wasn’t a creative thing of like, ‘Listen, we’ve just got nothing for you’ or whatever. It was straight up what you hear on the internet, it was ‘budget cuts.’ The company is obviously trimming some fat and whatever their plan is, unfortunately, business is business,” Nese explained, “and I was on the shit end of that stick.”

“Honestly, the wrestling world has changed drastically in the last—I was pretty much working with WWE for five years. A little bit of that at the beginning, I was still doing independents, but I was there for five years and the five years, to me, it felt like twenty years because so much has changed. So much has changed in the company, and so much has changed in the world of wrestling, so not only am I excited because I’m getting to try this new world out now,” Nese said, “but on top that, I’m coming out of this way different than when I was going in.”

Read More: Tony Nese Comments On WWE Release, Says He’s Excited To Try This ‘New World’ Of Wrestling Out

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