Update on Powerhouse Hobbs leaving AEW for WWE
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer gave an update on Powerhouse Hobbs departing AEW and heading to WWE.
News broke last night that, with his AEW contract expiring, Hobbs is expected to sign with WWE. He finished up with AEW on Wednesday, filming a Trios title defense that will air this weekend on Collision. Meltzer — who reported last week that WWE was “very high” on Hobbs — notes that WWE has been expecting to add Hobbs for a while.
“With Hobbs, WWE had expected that they had Hobbs for actually quite a while. I know that they thought that the match last Wednesday was going to be his last one, but he actually did a match I believe on Collision. That will air on Saturday, so that will be his last match,” Meltzer said. “His contract actually expires today. But, yeah, [WWE] expected him to go there. AEW made an offer. He turned down the AEW offer, wanted to go to WWE. We’ll see. For some people it’s the right move, and for some people it isn’t.”
Though WWE has been anticipating Hobbs’ arrival, Meltzer speculates that Tony Khan keeping Hobbs on television means that AEW was not certain he would be leaving until recently.
“Tony liked him and everything. And he was professional,” Meltzer said. “Tony didn’t take him off TV, so that tells me he didn’t know he was going. But, like I said, WWE — they were pretty confident they’ve had him for months, really.”
The 34-year-old Hobbs joined AEW in 2020 after starring on the California indies. He was a TNT Champion and Trios Champion during his AEW career, with Hobbs holding the Trios titles alongside his Opps stablemates Samoa Joe & Katsuyori Shibata.
Spoilers for Saturday’s Maximum Carnage Collision episode can be seen here.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.