Backstage Details On Jay White's AEW Contract, Why Talks With WWE Broke Down

Before Wednesday night's "AEW Dynamite," Jay White was arguably the most coveted free agent on the professional wrestling market. Now we know that "Switchblade" is All Elite, with WWE reportedly having missed out on him in the process. Fightful Select has since learned details surrounding White's contract situation with AEW, as well as potential reasons why talks with WWE didn't ultimately lead to him signing there.

Fightful learned that not only has White penned a multi-year contract with Tony Khan's promotion, but they've also confirmed that the deal was in place before WrestleMania 39 took place this past weekend. That is also to say that sources within WWE knew White wasn't headed to Stamford, Connecticut. "Switchblade" last wrestled against Eddie Kingston at New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Battle in the Valley back in February, ultimately coming up short in a Loser Leaves NJPW match. But according to Fightful, WWE registered its interest around the time of NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January, and in the weeks that followed were said to be confident in signing White.

WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque as well as Vice President of Global Talent Development William Regal showed interest along the way, but higher-ups revealed that the company "failed to communicate properly along the process." They also suggested that talks could have fallen through due to Vince McMahon returning to the company earlier this year, and the notable lack of main roster hires in the time that followed. Fightful noted that creative plans had already tentatively been drawn up for White, while some in WWE as recently as last week still held out hope that they were going to sign him after all.