WWE has reportedly sent AEW a legal letter.
On September 13, it emerged that Andrade had left WWE with immediate effect, and it wasn’t long before he made his next move. Just over two weeks later, the 35-year-old shockingly returned to All Elite Wrestling, attacking Kenny Omega on Dynamite and joining The Don Callis Family. However, the star hasn’t featured for AEW since October 1, and more has surfaced as to why.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez first revealed that Andrade’s absence isn’t related to injury. Instead, after it was initially believed that his WWE departure didn’t have any restrictions, it was said Andrade is off-screen due to a non-compete clause.
“I was told that he’s not hurt. He didn’t get himself fired. Apparently something is up involving his WWE non-compete. I mean maybe they figured they’d have this worked out in time to put the Kenny Omega match on, but they didn’t. I don’t know. I was given the impression it could be something that could be resolved quickly or something that might not be resolved for a while, but it’s something related to the non-compete.”
-Bryan Alvarez
Adding to this, Dave Meltzer then noted WWE had sent a letter to AEW informing them of the clause.
“That is what I’ve been hearing, was WWE sent a letter and they (AEW) obviously didn’t know. AEW obviously believed that there was no non-compete. There were people who talked to people in WWE who also believed there was no non-compete. But thats the story, they said he can’t do them for 90 days. So he’s going to be in AEW, at least most likely.”
-Dave Meltzer
This follows on from Andrade being pulled from an upcoming Mucha Lucha Atlanta show, where he was set to take on LA Park on October 26, although no reason was officially given as to why the match was cancelled.
So far, the former WWE star has only competed once since his departure, wrestling for Lucha Libre’s The Crash on October 3.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Andrade’s AEW absence as soon as we hear more.
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