Andrade El Idolo (formerly known as Andrade in WWE) is now officially All Elite as he made his AEW debut on Friday Night Dynamite alongside Vicki Guerrero. Coming out in the second segment of the show, his debut comes only a couple of months after the wrestler asked for and was granted his release by WWE.

The 31-year-old originally first appeared in WWE in 2015 and the sky was the limit for the International star. Having formerly wrestled under a mask and going by the name La Sombra, he had become a major star in Mexico and Japan and was a founding member of Los Ingobernables.

Andrade was a big star in NXT and eventually won the NXT Championship. But, upon his debut with WWE’s main roster, he didn’t see the same type of success. He was quickly relegated to mid card status and then often not used at all. Eventually, he requested his release and it was granted, after it appeared WWE was, at first, hesitant to do so.

There are many who suggest WWE really dropped the ball with Andrade. He is a tremendous in-ring worker and while the criticism in WWE seemed to be that he had trouble cutting promos, he took a swing at one on his first night in AEW and seemed to do just fine. He said he used to be known as the face of Latinos. Now, he’ll be known as the face all All Elite Wrestling.

According to an exclusive report by WrestlingInc. Andrade met with Tony Khan of AEW right at the time of his release with WWE. Because he didn’t have a non-compete clause in his contract, he was free to sign right away. Khan was keen to bring him in, but the reason it didn’t work out is because Andrade had a list of demands that Khan was uncomfortable meeting.

The report notes, “Negotiations stalled because of Andrade’s demands, which included wanting creative control and veto power on losing.” They add, “There was a compromise made on that, and he will have a limited amount of creative control on his finishes. Andrade also wanted to work for other companies outside of WWE.”

The site is also reporting that IMPACT Wrestling had spoken extensively with Andrade and that he asked for the same demands and while they were willing to guarantee part of his creative control requirements, the two sides were far apart on the number of dates he was going to be guaranteed on a paid-per-date deal. This is how a lot of IMPACT deals are structured now. They add, “They were pretty close on a one-off appearance at one point.”

Source: The Sportster