Details On When Andrade El Idolo Met With Tony Khan, Note On His Contract Negotiations With AEW

As revealed last night on AEW Dynamite, Andrade el Idolo is now ‘All Elite’ and made his debut for the company, siding with Vickie Guerrero. Wrestling Inc reports that Andrade met with Tony Khan in Florida the week that he was released from his WWE contract in March. Since he had no 90-day non-compete clause, Khan wanted to sign him right away, but a deal wasn’t made at the time.

Andrade demanded creative control and veto power over losing, which caused negotiations to move slowly. Eventually, they came to an agreement that Andrade would get a ‘limited amount’ of creative control for how his matches end. Andrade also wanted to work for other companies other than WWE. He signed this week after lengthy negotiations. They had been working on the ‘language’ of the contract for several days.

Andrade had been in talks with Impact Wrestling, who were willing to give him part of his creative control, but they were divided on the number of dates. He would have been paid per date and not get a guaranteed downside, which is how most Impact deals have been structured as of late. At one point, both sides were close to agreeing on a one-off appearance.

ROH was also interested in Andrade. His friend Rush is their World Champion and his contract expires in January.