Major AEW star allegedly convinced Tony Khan to sign former world champion amid interest from WWE

The decision to sign a former World Champion garnering interest from WWE was apparently not proposed by AEW president Tony Khan.

In one of the best phases of the Jericho Appreciation Society, Chris Jericho continually faced a number of opponents as part of his campaign to bring down the legacy of ROH. One of those contenders, Bandido, had apparently impressed Ocho tremendously.

On a recent episode of the Talk is Jericho podcast, the former AEW World Champion explained how he had asked Tony Khan to sign Bandido right after their match.

"Going out there with this guy and not knowing anything about him, he's such a great flier and he has such power. He held me up for the standing suplex, I think for like 60 seconds, and the blood was rushing to my head and I could barely hold on. He was so strong and when he finally brought me down, the people started going nuts. That's when we had them."

He then continued:

"It's one of those matches where everything was going too well. I spun his mask around and had him tap out to the walls, and as soon as we got back through the curtain, I said to Tony (Khan), 'We need to sign this guy.' That's what we did. It took a while to actually get him to commit, but man, we signed him and I see big things in the future for Bandido." (H/T: Fightful)

However, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Bandido in AEW.

Bandido reportedly had interest from WWE before eventually joining AEW

While the former world champion is now All Elite, Triple H's team was apparently quite interested in signing Bandido themselves.

Wrestling Observer Live had previously claimed that even before Bandido's match with Chris Jericho ended.

“Bandido, after Wednesday, was immediately offered a full-time contract...Now it just says here that he was offered a deal. Hopefully he's signed because WWE was asking for his number before that match was even over."

However, his entry into Tony Khan's roster has been highly praised by fans. While he is yet to feature prominently in a storyline, it is safe to assume, judging by the applause after his last match, that Bandido will be back on-screen sooner rather than later.