What Is The Next Move For Shane Strickland?

Is Strickland All Elite?

On the other side of the coin right now is All Elite Wrestling. AEW has been the talk of the wrestling town since its official launch in January and it has been making waves by snapping up some of the hottest and up-and-coming names on the indies. Thus far, they’ve shown restraint in their signings as to not become the WWE Castoffs League instead focusing on wrestlers who have built their own names.

Still, AEW has yet to round out its singles male roster with too many names. Hangman Page, PAC, Cody, Chris Jericho, and Kenny Omega sit comfortably at or near the top of the card while MJF, Joey Janela, Sonny Kiss, Sammy Guevara, Jimmy Havoc, and Jungle Boy round out the rest of the group.

Shane Strickland could easily fit into the upper mid-card of AEW and very quickly become a main event name as he is exposed to audience members who may not be super familiar with his work. I don’t think it would take long, if any time at all, to present Strickland on the same level as the top names in the company like Omega and Jericho.

With Strickland in AEW, it would send a clear message to the wrestling world and to WWE specifically that not all roads lead to New York. While being signed by WWE became the goal for nearly every wrestler since the collapse of WCW, it may no longer be the only goal available to an industry which has long struggled to produce a competitor to WWE.