Lance Archer boosted his profile considerably following NJPW's G1 Climax 2019 in 2019. Though Archer finished at the bottom of his Block, he turned in great performances against the likes of Will Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kazuchika Okada.
Archer would use the momentum from his G1 run to win the IWGP United States Title and then have a well-received match against Jon Moxley at Wrestle Kingdom 14.
He became the hottest free agent on the market following Wrestle Kingdom and had offers from multiple companies.
“Yeah, there was definitely stuff on the table,” Archer admitted to Alex McCarthy of TalkSPORT. “Obviously, my relationship with New Japan – I’d been there for eight and half years – there was an offer from them as well and nothing was quick. It was definitely a longer thinking process, a bigger decision process. I have a lot of faith and I did a lot of praying about this situation and it was one of those things."
In the end, Archer ended up with AEW.
“It ultimately came down to the people in AEW were much more attentive to having me apart of AEW. The numbers were adding up in the right way. As I said, the prayers I was doing were leading me towards AEW and just everything was leading me towards it. The opportunity to be apart of something that is growing, help that and help AEW become even greater than it already is, that challenge was just too enticing. Nothing was quick about the process. It took it’s time and I made some tough decisions, but ultimately the right decision in my opinion. That’s what led me to AEW and now we’re here, I’m ready to kick some ass," said Archer.
Archer has been a force in AEW, running through the competition and finding himself in the finals of AEW TNT Title tournament. He is scheduled to face Cody in the finals at AEW Double or Nothing.
