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Report on why Dragon Lee decided to sign with WWE instead of AEW

Aaron Rift

As previously noted, lucha libre star Dragon Lee signed a contract with WWE earlier this month and will start with the NXT brand in January. According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, AEW had also made an offer to Lee and Lee asked friends for advice. Meltzer noted the following…

“It came down to the idea that right now AEW is so loaded with talent and as talented as he is, there are so many people who would be ahead of him, like Rey Fenix, Penta, Rush and Bandido, and there’s only so many people they can feature with how they do television, let alone the number of Mexicans who are great workers but not great English speakers. As talented as he is, he’d almost surely be lost in the mix in AEW. Or at least that was what people who gave him advice believed.”

In terms of finances, it’s believed that Lee will be the highest paid wrestler in NXT now that Mandy Rose has left the company. Lee reportedly has a three-year deal which apparently calls for pay increases with each year.

Twitter account @luchablog provided some insight as well…

“Dragon Lee had done almost all he had to do in Mexico. (Wish we got the Vikingo match.) NJPW moved on. It was time for the US, WWE moved quicker, and WWE still has a cultural edge over AEW in Mexico. Dragon Lee is also very close to Andrade, who probably had a few thoughts. Dragon Lee’s been around for a long time, but he’s actually still only 27 – might as well try WWE if they’re offering. It’s great if it works, and he’ll have plenty of time to go try something else if it doesn’t work and he’s interested. There aren’t many US wrestling contracts available to Mexican wrestlers. If someone is going to offer one – a real one – then it’s hard to say no.”