AR Fox Bought A Ticket To Work AEW Dark Before Finding Out About His Dynamite Debut

AR Fox has continually impressed fans and officials within AEW since signing with the company last year — but his road towards earning a contract wasn't a straightforward one by any means. After traveling the roads across the United States for 15 years, Fox formally signed with AEW last November, and has been used in a wide variety of roles across "AEW Dynamite", "AEW Rampage" and ROH. The indie veteran had another eye-catching display on the July 26 "Dynamite" in a losing effort against Orange Cassidy, continuing to cement himself as one of the most reliable workers on the roster. On "Busted Open Radio", the 35-year-old revealed how his first opportunity to compete on "Dynamite" came to fruition. 

"I had a hand in training Shawn Dean, I wasn't his original trainer — but he came to Atlanta and I helped him out. I'm not quite exactly sure, but he's reached some kind of position there and I know he helped with the extra work," Fox said. "One day he popped back into school to give me a picture of him to put up on the wall in the school. I said 'Hey man, I don't care where I gotta go, can I try, can I do extra work?' and when they came to Atlanta, I went in for extra work. Then I started doing them on the road after that, flying myself to them. One day I was watching AEW and my head was down at the moment, but I heard my match was announced for "Dynamite." I had already bought my ticket for that Wednesday to do "Dark."

"Since then, they offered me the contract and I was trying to do whatever I can, as much as I can." Following his loss to Cassidy on "Dynamite" in Albany, Fox turned heel on longtime friend Darby Allin and joined forces with Swerve Strickland, setting himself up for a prominent role on television in the lead up to the All In and All Out pay-per-view events.