Tony Nese has confirmed that he is All Elite.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Tony Nese confirmed that he has signed with AEW. He said about his signing, "This is awesome. It's been a blessing."
Nese was released by WWE on June 25. He was shown in the crowd on AEW Dynamite where he was called "one of the hottest free agents in wrestling," and then worked the AEW Dark tapings at Universal Studios.
Speaking about his appearance on Dynamite, Nese said, "I got invited to go and it was like, 'Hey, would you like to come down to Orlando, we know you're in Orlando as well.' 'Yes, absolutely.' I had been there earlier. During my 90-day non-compete I went there as a guest just to hang out with my friends. In that company, I have tons of friends and people I've traveled with a lot on the Independents, so I just went to visit. Everyone was super cool and super nice and it was definitely a good place and I think people liked me. Then they invited me to Orlando and it was literally like 10 minutes before they went live and they pulled me aside and were like, 'Hey, would you be cool to site out in the crowd and we keep showing you on camera?' I was like, 'Yeah, why not? TV time? I'll take it.' I just sat out there and when they asked me at first I was laughing like, 'is the house low? do you need me out there cheering or something?' Then he explained it to me and I was like, 'Oh, that's awesome.' From there, we got to discussing where to go. Honestly, it was super cool the way they treated me off the bat like, 'Hey, let's build you up as a star and bring you in as a star,' just like they should anyone else. I'm definitely appreciative of that."
Nese said it was his choice to show up in the crowd in a suit as he wanted to look professional.
"I feel like in AEW, the possibilities are now endless and it's not a matter of getting lucky that you become the next project for them. In AEW, the vibe I'm getting, is everyone is super in control of their own destiny. That, right there, gives me a lot of comfort," he said.
When asked who he wants to wrestle in AEW, Nese replied, "There are the obvious ones when you look at CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega. Also, I can't want to get back in the ring with Alex Reynolds, John Silver, Ethan Page. These are guys that I wrestled on the Independents and we hit it off and our chemistry was always amazing. I can't wait to be able to have those same matches that we did in front of 100 people in front of thousands now and show that chemistry. When I first got into WWE, you start thinking of all the names and possibilities but then you start seeing the way they're using you and you see that fade away. On 205, everyone was awesome and we were a tight group, but we wrestled literally every week the same people over and over. This is exciting. I'm not being pigeonhole into one thing anymore. This is like, 'Hey, it's an open field now.' One day you could be wrestling an extra and the next week I could wrestle CM Punk. They've already shown that anything is possible there. Super exciting. Other names; the Young Bucks. I've had some really really fun matches with them. I actually owe a lot to them with helping me breakout on the independent scene and working my way to the west coast. I hope I get to wrestle everyone. It's going to be fun."
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer first reported the news of Nese's signing. Nese has yet to be given an All Elite graphic by AEW.
You can view full spoilers from the AEW Dark tapings at Universal Studios by clicking here.
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