Role Reversal: Which AEW Stars Should WWE Be Targeting to Poach?

When All Elite Wrestling first started in 2019, it was risky for anyone to sign up since there was no telling how successful the new company would be.

Fast forward to 2021 and AEW is such an inviting presence that major names such as Christian Cage, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole have left WWE in favor of the younger promotion.

Previously, WWE had no problem taking people from WCW during the Monday Night Wars, but no one has made the switch from from AEW to Vince McMahon's company outside of a handful of names used primarily on Dark, such as Cora Jade and Gigi Dolin.

But who should WWE try to poach from Tony Khan's promotion? Let's take a look at some options.

Before offering our suggestions, it's important to address the reality of the situation.

Any list like this should include names like MJF, Darby Allin, Hikaru Shida, Lucha Brothers, Thunder Rosa and many more. It would be absurd not to say WWE should go after Ricky Starks and Orange Cassidy or to bring Kris Statlander into somewhere like NXT.

Practically the entire roster should be on WWE's radar, and officials should try their best to grab virtually everyone.

People are way too happy in AEW to want to leave for a company that seemingly has a new round of budget cuts every month, stifles creativity, kills their pushes on the main roster and so forth.

There is no conceivable way WWE could steal Jungle Boy and "Hangman" Adam Page when they know they're rising stars in AEW on their own merits.

The Acclaimed won't want to be censored in a PG environment, and The Dark Order will know WWE doesn't have a good track record with tag teams. Malakai Black, Tay Conti and others who have left WWE are unlikely to want to go back, either.

That strips this list of nearly 130 wrestlers, leaving a handful of slight possibilities—and even those are a stretch.

When Brian Cage was brought into AEW, it seemed he could be the one to dethrone Jon Moxley. That looked even more apparent when he won the Casino ladder match at Double or Nothing in May 2020 to earn a title shot.

That proved unsuccessful when he lost to Moxley at Fight for the Fallen two months later.

Over a year later, though, and Cage has achieved nothing on par with that peak. His wife, Melissa Santos, put out several tweets expressing how AEW is wasting his potential, and it's hard to argue with that assessment.

Since Cage appears to have been forgotten about, he's one of the few talents who could realistically be pulled away to WWE.

Vince McMahon has always leaned more toward bigger wrestlers, and Cage is monstrous and athletic. He's someone who could be a main event player from the moment he steps through the doors.

If AEW continues signing more former WWE talent, there will be even fewer chances to make an impact and Cage will be better off trying to advance his career elsewhere.

Years ago, Chris Jericho left WCW in part because he felt stifled and that he was going nowhere. He was stuck as a midcard talent who knew he could be doing more but didn't see any upward mobility in a land ruled by Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff.

Kip Sabian may find himself in a similar position in due time based on how little he's been used overall in AEW.

He has never been in contention for a title, and his feuds have been relegated to the lower end of the shows.

At 29, he's still young and has a personality that could fit WWE very well, especially if he can sign with his wife, Penelope Ford, who is arguably the bigger steal.

Ford, 28, is a fantastic athlete who should have been snatched up by WWE well before AEW even existed. She's exactly what WWE looks for in the women's division as she balances her always-improving wrestling skills with the look of a true star.

The bigger someone is, the higher chance WWE is interested in signing them, and few on the roster are as large as Powerhouse Hobbs.

At 30, he's not quite as young as WWE is shooting for in terms of talent to mold, but he's had 10 years experience on the indies and his time in AEW has made him a drastically better performer. It wouldn't take much to get him to work the WWE style as preferred.

Hobbs is also in a position where he's featured regularly but not so much that he's a foundational player. AEW wouldn't be able to afford giving him a contract the size of some of its upper-echelon talent if WWE made a better offer to entice him.

Hobbs told the Talk Is Jericho podcast his story of a tryout with WWE, which emailed him after his match with Darby Allin to try to sign him (h/t Jason Ounpraseuth of WrestlingInc).

While that experience could stop Hobbs from entertaining an offer in the future, bad blood hasn't stopped others from signing with WWE.

WWE has often been called The Land of the Giants, so if Cage and Hobbs are on the list, Wardlow has to be.

At 6'3", 270 lbs, the 33-year-old is the type of monster WWE would build an entire brand around akin to Karrion Kross in NXT and Brock Lesnar on the main roster.

Wardlow isn't much of a talker, but he's gotten better as time's gone by, proving he can be molded into a Superstar who WWE would be comfortable with at the top of the card.

One of the keys with this list is that there aren't many people who would realistically take WWE's offer, so in order to give McMahon and Co. an edge, there should be room for growth.

Since Wardlow hasn't reached the top of AEW yet, promises of quick ascension to the main event could be persuasive, especially if he's working alone and not as heavy backup for a show-stealing talent like MJF.

Considering how lackluster Jeff Hardy's time in WWE has been as of late, most fans are imagining he'll leave for AEW rather than any scenario in which Matt Hardy rejoins his brother.

A Hardy Boyz reunion is always enticing, perhaps if a Hall of Fame induction was used as a bargaining chip.

On top of this, an honest assessment of Hardy's time in AEW hasn't been all that great. He's tried multiple gimmicks, none of which has been anywhere near as successful as hoped.

Broken Matt Hardy wasn't far off his Woken self in WWE. Big Money Matt has stuck around a little while, but The Hardy Family Office is one of the most disjointed factions in the company and makes little sense.

Down the line, when Hardy's deal is up, he may have scratched the itch he needed by going elsewhere and could be feeling less like stretching his legs and more like settling into a more comfortable role "back home" so to speak.

At first glance, this sounds preposterous. In fact, you could call it an assured impossibility, especially after Cody Rhodes debunked rumors of tension with other AEW executives.

However, stranger things have happened in the world of sports entertainment.

Rhodes has gone from arguably the top dog in AEW to someone who seemingly spends more time behind the scenes than on camera.

The Nightmare Collective and almost all of the projects under Brandi Rhodes have failed. Cody quickly ruled himself out of being in title contention, and his place on the roster has steadily dipped ever since.

Meanwhile, The Elite continue to be bigger presences on the shows while Rhodes busies himself with more TNT-related projects like Rhodes to the Top and Go-Big Show.

Since leaving WWE, Rhodes has more than proved himself worthy of a world title. Maybe McMahon will offer him that spot to check that off his list on Raw or SmackDown in the future.

Don't hold your breath on this, obviously, but in a world where Christian Cage and Edge were in world title matches this year, CM Punk just fought Sting's protege, Bruce Prichard is the second-in-command at WWE and Paul Heyman manages a heel Roman Reigns against Brock Lesnar, anything can happen.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.