RJ City Lays Out Differences Between WWE And AEW

Pro wrestling personality RJ City said he has more creative freedom and less red tape to work around now that he's working with AEW.

The former WWE Network personality left his former company and joined AEW last March, where he now hosts his weekly "Hey! (EW)" show. A former independent wrestler himself, RJ City became a successful pro wrestling content creator after stepping back from in-ring action last spring. In a new interview with Stephanie Chase, he opened up about the differences between working for AEW and WWE.

"It was similar in a sense where [WWE] let my sensibilities guide me, but there were a lot more restrictions in terms of what we could and couldn't do," he said. "It was like getting sucked up in a tornado. A bunch of stuff was happening, then a bunch of stuff they would plan just wouldn't happen for a million other reasons. It was like a city, where if you want to get your driver's license renewed, you have to talk to like 40 different people, and you're like, well, this will just never get done."

There were a lot of ideas he got attached to in WWE that never came to fruition because of all the red tape. "And that just drives me insane," City added, noting AEW has a good balance of providing enough resources without breathing down their performers' necks.

"I don't mean this as an insult, I mean it as a compliment: It's like [the] bare minimum to make sure it gets done, which is the best," he said. "They're focused on making stuff. Sometimes a company is too big that they have the luxury to work on stuff that will never happen." Recently, City has also teased future television AEW appearances.