Tony Nese Describes How Quickly AEW Debut And Signing Came About

Just a few months after his WWE release, Tony Nese made his first AEW appearance on October 23, 2021. Sitting in the crowd to watch "AEW Dynamite," the commentary team hailed him as one of the hottest free agents in the industry. Little did Nese know that day when he was visiting his friends how soon he would sign a deal to become "All Elite." During a recent appearance on "AEW Unrestricted," Nese explained how quickly everything came together.

"That was a crazy day," Nese recalled. "I was honestly just showing up to meet Tony [Khan], to say hi. We were locals in Orlando. I was there to meet everyone, see if I could talk to Tony and stuff. I was standing outside of his office, just talking to a bunch of people, Adam Cole and a couple of others. He walks out, 'Hey Tony, how are you doing? I'm a big fan.' Literally, five minutes later," he continued, "he's like, 'Do you want to sit out in the crowd?'"

Nese said he took a step back and asked Khan if he just wanted him to sit in the crowd as a fan to fill seats. Khan explained that he wanted to show Nese sitting in the crowd and "make a big deal out of it" by questioning his appearance on air. "Minutes after that, they pulled me aside and talked to me, we talked out a deal and it literally was like 30 minutes before," Nese explained. "'We're going to put you out there and you're going to sit out there the whole show.' So I just sat out there."