Potential real reason why Jon Moxley secretly worked as a free agent for AEW instead of returning to WWE

AEW recently announced that Jon Moxley had signed a new deal with the company after briefly working as a free agent. Following the announcement, a new report has suggested how the world champion's new deal potentially came together.

Moxley has committed to compete in All Elite Wrestling until 2027 as part of his new deal. His services will now be exclusive to the Jacksonville-based company and its international partners, including NJPW and AAA. The former WWE star would also be given a backstage coaching role to mentor younger talent.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently commented on Jon Moxley's contract situation. He claimed that The Purveyor of Violence kept his free agency a secret to prevent a bidding war between All Elite Wrestling and WWE.

"The contract extended due to the time he had off going to rehab in late 2021, and expired in mid-July. This was kept secretive and he had verbally agreed to money terms and that he was going to stay. Legally, he could have probably gotten in excess of $4.5 million annually from WWE and caused the biggest bidding war up to this point in wrestling history." (H/T WrestleTalk)

The announcement of Moxley's re-signing was seemingly affected by the drama surrounding All Out, per Meltzer. He was initially going to be written off TV so he could return in his hometown and announce the deal on TV.

"Regarding the announcement, at one point there was going to be an angle where Moxley left after All Out and was to return on the 10/18 show in Cincinnati at which point it would be announced he had signed the new deal." (H/T WrestleTalk)

Moxley will be at the October 18 edition of Dynamite, where he will defend the AEW World Championship against former champion Hangman Page.

AEW's backstage drama allegedly affected the timing of Jon Moxley's re-signing announcement

Before the 3rd Anniversary edition of Dynamite on October 5, Andrade El Idolo was reportedly involved in a backstage altercation with Sammy Guevara. The fiery exchange resulted in Andrade being sent home and cast a dark cloud over the event as a whole.

According to Meltzer, the backstage melee was one of the reasons Jon Moxley's announcement was moved up by almost two weeks. AEW seemingly made the announcement to fight back against the bad publicity caused by Andrade and Guevara's scuffle.

"The announcement was moved up 11 days for two reasons. One is that they wanted it out that he had signed the five-year deal prior to his dropping the GCW title to Nick Gage on 10/8 in Atlantic City. In addition, with AEW having negative news due to the situation with Sammy Guevara and Andrade, that day made sense to make what would come across as a positive announcement for the company." (H/T WrestleTalk)

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