Tony Khan said AEW has to be very considerate about signing free agents, and Motor City machine guns sat at the center of that discussion. Fans expected Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley in Detroit last night, but they did not appear on Dynamite there.
In an interview with ROAR Around The Ring, Khan said, "If you look at how many great wrestlers there are in AEW…every week different wrestlers wind up fighting for top spots, so there’s a lot of competition in AEW right now. So we have to be very considerate about who we sign, and about who comes in to compete, because right now there’s already so many great wrestlers competing for these spots on TV and on pay-per-views."
July 30 and the free-agent pool
On July 30, the free-agent pool included Aleister Black, Santos Escobar, Motor City Machine Guns, Kairi Sane, Wyatt Sicks, and Zelina Vega. WWE had released a whole bunch of wrestlers shortly after WrestleMania 42, and many of the 90 day non compete clauses have recently ended.
That timing is why the conversation around AEW turned quickly from speculation to roster math. When a company already has too many wrestlers competing for TV and pay-per-view spots, every new signing has to clear a higher bar than simple availability.
Chris Sabin in Detroit
Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley were expected by the author to show up on one special live Thursday episode of Collision in Detroit. Instead, the Detroit stop became the latest checkpoint for fans watching whether Motor City Machine Guns will move from rumor to AEW television.
The contradiction is plain: fans were looking for Motor City Machine Guns in Detroit, while Khan was warning that AEW cannot treat every available free agent as an automatic addition. For Sabin and Shelley, that leaves the next step hanging on whether Collision in Detroit becomes a debut or just another night of speculation.
AEW spots stay tight
Khan's comments point to a cautious signing approach, not a shopping spree. AEW already has enough depth that even well-known names have to fit into a crowded TV and pay-per-view mix before any deal makes sense.
