Right after winning the AAA Tag Team Championship with Dralistico at AAA Night of Champions on Wednesday night, Dragon Lee announced that he had signed a deal with WWE.
Dave Meltzer addressed Lee’s signing on Wrestling Observer Radio where he revealed that the deal was made about two weeks ago and the luchador was asked to keep it under wraps for obvious reasons. Meltzer said,
“The deal was made a couple weeks ago but they were told to keep it quiet. And they wanted to make the announcement after they won the tag team titles. Which is a very interesting thing because he pinned an AEW star. And that was part of the deal. I mean, Tony Khan was aware of it. I’m sure that if this was reversed, that never would have happened.”
Lee originally wanted to sign with NJPW, but his ugly fallout with CMLL didn’t make it sound like a feasible idea. The complex political situation between NJPW, CMLL, and AAA caused Lee to work in Mexico, where he could earn a modest paycheck at best.
Moving to the United States would allow Lee to try his luck with WWE and AEW, and it appears that fortune really favored the luchador. While Lee would’ve earned more money with AEW, he would equally run the risk of dealing with inadequate television time due to the bloated roster. Meltzer said,
“Him and Dralistico had a tryout with WWE. And they wanted him. AEW wanted him as well…it’s a bigger money deal than Mexico, but it is not any kind of a big money deal. He’s getting NXT money, he’s not getting main roster money.”
“…so he could make a little bit more money [in AEW] and probably not wrestle a lot, or he could go to NXT. He is a super talented guy, and he could be a focal point over there.”
“In NXT is probably, for right now, for him as far as being able to wrestle, being able to get a push and things like that, it is the best place for him in the United States right now, and it’s the place that he chose.”
WWE’s interest in Lee spiked upon discovering that the high-flying wrestler had wrestled for AEW without a contract, much like the case of Bandido. Meltzer said,
“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 the catalyst of it, was them finding out that AEW had put a guy on television with no deal.”
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