Four Former AEW Stars Now Hold WWE Gold as Tony Khan Takes a Major Hit

WWE and AEW keep tugging on the same rope, and the rope is talent. A few years back, AEW looked like the hot room stuffed with shiny new signings. Lately, the Triple H-led WWE has flipped that vibe: several ex-AEW names are not just on TV, they are winning world titles. If you are Tony Khan, this stretch has to sting a little.

Cody Rhodes

Cody was an EVP at AEW and one of the faces that built the company. Early on, he delivered the big, emotional tentpoles — like that blood-and-tears war with his brother Dustin at the first Double or Nothing — and cut the kind of promos that made you believe the mission was bigger than the match.

Then came the split. Creative differences pushed Cody (and his wife) out in 2022. He re-emerged at WrestleMania 38, instantly slotted as WWE’s top good guy. The momentum snowballed, and the whole thing peaked when he finally knocked off Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40. At this point, Cody is basically the face of the company and a walking ad for WWE’s so-called new era.

He is also still champion. At Saturday Night's Main Event, he retained the undisputed WWE title against Drew McIntyre, keeping the run rolling and, yeah, giving AEW one more reason to wonder how letting him walk made sense.

CM Punk

If there was one guy who could have cemented AEW as the alternative, it was Punk. The man gets a roar wherever he goes and, fair or not, carries that folk-hero aura. AEW had a golden window when he arrived in August 2021, but the company never fully cashed in on the momentum. Punk did what Punk does — big promos, heated programs, the whole nine — but the marriage never lasted.

He returned to WWE at Survivor Series 2023 and promptly took over major real estate on the card, mixing it up with John Cena, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and more. The latest chapter came at Saturday Night's Main Event, where he beat Jey Uso to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. That makes it his eighth world title, and it makes AEW’s missed opportunity feel even louder.

Ricky Saints (fka Ricky Starks)

This one’s a curveball, because the path has some zigzags. Saints did a stint as a WWE developmental talent back in 2012–13, ground it out on the indies, then landed in AEW in 2020 by answering Cody Rhodes’ open challenge for the TNT title. He quickly linked up with Taz in Team Taz — alongside Brian Cage and Hook — and started stacking resume lines: he won the 2022 Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale and the 2023 men’s Owen Hart Cup.

The problem? Those wins never turned into the bigger titles. A fractured neck in April 2021 during a match with Hangman Adam Page stalled everything and led to a significant layoff. By the time his AEW deal expired in February 2025, the writing was on the wall.

Saints has said the quiet part out loud about why he left, citing creative headaches and meddling. On Busted Open Radio, he put it like this:

"There are some people who stuck their nose in my creative business that shouldn't have happened. Veterans. If they got a problem with me, they got my number."

Now in WWE, he is very much a work-in-progress star with a ceiling. The charisma is obvious, the promos have bite, and people are already tossing around the 'next Rock' comparisons — premature, sure, but not pulled out of thin air. He recently retained his title against Trick Williams at Halloween Havoc 2025, which is the kind of spotlight that turns momentum into traction if WWE keeps the push steady.

Jade Cargill

Cargill is exactly the type of talent WWE loves to present as a force of nature, and she is delivering on that packaging. Before this current run — which includes a Women’s Tag Team title reign with Bianca Belair and a statement win over Tiffany Stratton at Saturday Night's Main Event — she was a core piece of AEW’s women’s division.

In AEW, Jade became the inaugural TBS Champion and held that belt for a record run at the time. Had she stayed, she could have been the face of that division for years. Instead, she wanted a bigger stage with deeper competition, and WWE had the established roster to test her. The result: she is now the undisputed WWE Women’s Champion, and it looks like step one of the long-term legacy she talked about building.

Bottom line: four former AEW headliners are holding WWE gold right now. That is not great optics for the competition, and it is a big endorsement of WWE’s current creative direction. Curious to see who jumps next and whether they end up hoisting a belt just as fast. What do you make of these runs? Drop your take in the comments.